


I 




Book 'L4-1 
GofiyrigMW. 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSm 



GPO 






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FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

FROM THE PAINTING BY CARLO VANLOO. 



THE YOUTH 



OF 



FREDERICK THE GREAT 



ERNEST LAVISSE 

PROFESSOR AT THE SORBONNE, PARIS 



TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH 

BY 

MARY BUSHNELL COLEMAN 



(/' 



CHICAGO 
S. C. GRIGGS AND COMPANY 

1892 






■T y 



Copyright, 1891 
By MARY BUSHNELL COLEMAN 






€i)t Eakfsilic Press 

H. DONNELLEY & SONS CO., CHICAGO 



THIS TRANSLATION 

IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY 

OF MY FRIEND AND INSPIRER, 

MRS. CHAPMAN COLEMAN, 

THE SUCCESSFUL TRANSLATOR 

OF MUHLBACH'S 

HISTORICAL NOVELS OF "FREDERICK THE GREAT." 



f^'l 



I 



AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 



Natuke, who lias prepared certain countries and 
constructed birthplaces for nations, did not foresee 
Prussia. In fact, there does not exist a geograph- 
ical Prussia either as a race or region: Germany is 
the daughter of nature, but Prussia was made by 
men. 

In 1713, a man began to reign at Berlin, who was 
born a military monomaniac. It pleased this sov- 
ereign of eighteen hundred thousand poor subjects 
to have as strong an army as that of Austria, that 
is to say, of an empire of more than twenty million 
people. This passion regulated the thoughts, habits, 
and life of Frederick William I. As it was a morbid 
and restricted mania, it was sufficient unto itself, 
and required no exterior manifestations. The King- 
Sergeant loved his army as Harpagon his treasure; 
his eyes deliglited at the sight of his battalions as 
the miser's hands at the fluent contact of the gold 
pieces. Harpagon took his gold from the coffer only 
to contemplate it; when the regiments of Frederick 
AYilliam left their garrisons it was for display at 
grand reviews; they returned to them immediately. 



VI PREFACE. 

This king had, it is true, good reasons for not ven- 
turing his military capital in enterprises; besides, 
he had a religion, the fear of God and the fear of 
the devil. The desire of gaining a few " shovelfuls 
of sand " caused him to commit sins of cupi4ity, 
but his Christian conscience and his scruples as an 
honest man would have recoiled if an occasion for 
some bold infamy had presented itself. 

This king died in 1740. Another succeeded him, 
at the same time alike and yet unlike ;^ — alike in 
methods of governing, in making and saving his 
gold pieces, in regulating the increase of his army 
by that of his 'finances, and by his sedulous attention 
to details ; — unlike in ability for decisive action, in 
power and genius manifested in action; in con- 
tempt for all human and Divine law, and in the 
serenity of this contempt. 

In 1740, a conjunction was formed of a power, — 
the Prussian army, — of a resolute man to make use 
of it, — Frederick II. — and of an unforeseen event 
which opened the way for this power and this man: 
this opening was the Austrian succession. It de- 
termined ihe whole destiny of Prussia. 

In place of Frederick William I., who created the 
power, put a king like Frederick I., an enjoyer of a 
royal dignity, that was expended in magnificent 
fetes and ostentatious cerejnonies: you suppress 
Prussia probably; assuredly you prorogue it. Place, 
after the King-Sergeant, an honest, mediocre man, 



PREFACE. Vll 

or, simply, an honest man: Maria Theresa inherits 
the paternal succession guaranteed by a number of 
clear and authentic treaties, and Prussia does not 
rise from third to first in rank. The whole course 
of history is changed. 

Frederick William I. and Frederick II. collabor- 
ated equally in forming the character and physi- 
ognomy of Prussia. The father was an autocrat by 
Divine right, a priest as well as a soldier and a 
king, a man of order and of prayer. He bent the 
bodies and souls of his subjects; he moulded them, 
body, and soul, into an attitude, into a uniform. 
The son was one of the most liberal-minded men 
that ever existed, a soldier also, but at the same time 
a man of letters; an autocrat, but a philosopher. 
Military and intellectual Prussia — the Berlin of 
barracks and schools, where the university neigh- 
bors the arsenal, where the statue of Humboldt 
faces that of Blticher — emanated from Frederick 
William, the King-Sergeant, and from Frederick the 
Great, the King-Philosopher; and barracks, univer- 
sity, arsenal, statues of philosophers and marshals 
sprang up around and in the shadow of the king's 
palace. 

A singular power, made up of liberty in thought 
and discipline in action, where the boldest conce[)- 
tions are given life within line, and remain there. 

The principal interest of the history of Frederick's 
youth, is that it points out to us the struggle of 



Vm PREFACE. 

contrary elements, the fasion of which was to con- 
stitute Prussia, From the time that Frederick 
reached manhood until the day, when forced into 
an unwilling marriage, he became master of his own 
household, — "far from Jupiter and his thunder," — 
the father and son were in continual strife. They 
were conscious only of their dissimilarities. Except 
in rare moments when they caught a glimpse of the 
justice they owed each to the other, they hated and 
despised each other. The son desired the death of 
his father; the father promised a munificent reward 
to the messencrer who would brinor him news of the 
death of his son. Xeither knew the value of the 
other, nor that they worked, each in his own way, 
the one as necessary as tlie other, to '• decide," as 
Frederick would say, the uncertainty of the birth 
of Prussia. 

I have related in detail the history of Frederick's 
youth up to the time of his marriage, which eman- 
cipated him.^ I have been induced to do this by 
reading preceding works upon this subject," but 
principally through the study of valuable docu- 
ments, letters and orders of the king, letters of the 
prince, official or secret correspondence, memoirs, 
authentic accounts by eye witnesses of the chief 
events, and official reports of the courts, that were 
permitted to relate day by day, and, during the most 
trying moments, hour by hour, the incidents of this 
strife between father and son. 



PREFACE. IX 

I have, also, studied from other documents, the 
phices where the drama was enacted. I imagined I 
could see it revived in the Palace of Berlin, at the 
Wusterhauseu, and at tlie foot of the rampart at 
Custrin. 

In the great mass of detail, perhaps I may have 
erred in some few instances; but my conscience 
tells me that I have searched for the truth, and I 
hope I have found it in the essential points, that 
is to say, in the character of the two principal per- 
sonaijes, and the motives of their conduct. I have 
taken great pleasure in my task. At every turn, 
I met with words, phrases, gestures, actions, that 
we can hear or see repeated at the present time. 
I have observed, in passing, that such an order of 
William II., addressed to the officers of his army, 
such a speech pronounced by him at Konigsberg, 
and which excited so muck provocation in Russia, 
were mere reminiscences of Frederick William, Init 
there must be left a part for the reader tv> do in 
tlie work which was written for him. 

In seeing revealed the minds and morals of the 
two sovereigns by a hundred anecdotes, — sovereigns 
who have made the little Kingdom of Prussia such 
a great military State, to-day master of Germany 
and a prevailing power in Europe, — perha[)s, 
reader, you may wonder if these minds and morals, 
of which the effects have developed in concentric 
circles, will rule enlarged Prussia, Germany, and 



X PREFACE. 

Europe for a long period of time. The first circle 
formed in the water by a stone that is thrown into 
it, has the clearness of a relief; the relief dimin- 
ishes as the circles multiply and enlarge ; at a little 
distance farther on the water retains its natural 
tranquillity. In history all power has its limits 
more or less contracted; the strongest is often of 
the shortest duration, and the most exposed — when 
it passes beyond the bounds of its primitive sphere 
— to the reactions which destroy it. 

Eknest Lavisse. 



CONTENTS. 



Preface, ----- v 

Bibliography, ----..-. xiii 

CHAPTER I. 
CHILDHOOD. 

Birth. Grandfather. Accession of the Father, - 1 
The Governess; the First Masters; the Preceptor 

and the Sub-preceptor, 7 

Instruction to the Preceptors, ----- 20 

The Germs of Conflict Between Father and Son, 33 

CHAPTER II. 

THE FATHER OF FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

The Ideas and Modes of Government of Frederick 

William, --------- 45 

The King's Government, ------ 61 

The Creation of Prussian Power, - . - . 67 

The Inaction of the King of Prussia, - - 75 

The Individuality of Frederick William, - - 95 

The Pleasures of Frederick William, - - 101 

Acts of Violence, Folly and Despotism, - - 113 

Frederick William's Religion, . . . - 120 

CHAPTER III. 
THE CONFLICT BETWEEN FATHER AND SON. 

First Symptoms and Causes of the Conflict, - - 128 

The Mother of Frederick, 135 

The Eldest Sister, 142 

Mother, Daughter and Son, 116 

The Projects of Marriage for Frederick and Wil- 

helmina, 151 

The King and the Projects of Marriage, - - 158 

xi 



Xll CONTENTS. 

The PkiNCE's Party, ------- 1G2 

The Preceptor's Farewell. Forbidden Pleasures, 170 

The Autumn of 1728 at Wusterhausen, - - 177 

The Resumption op the Marriage Negotiations, - 186 

The Mission of Sir Charles Hotham, - - 199 

CHAPTER IV. 

THE ATTEMPT AT ESCAPE AND THE PUNISHMENT. 

The Flight and the Arrest, - - - - - 221 

The Examination, --.-... 236 

The Judgment, --..-..- 260 

The Justice of the King, . - . . - 272 

The Execution of Katte, ------ 277 

The Pardon of the Prince, - - - - - 288 

CHAPTER V. 

THE SECOND EDUCATION OF THE CROWN PRINCE, 

The First Six Months in the Chamber of Adminis- 
tration, --------- 304 

The Royal Visit, -------- 314 

The New Regime of Life, ------ 318 

The Marriage of Wilhelmina, - - - - 332 

The Crown Prince at the Marriage of His Sister, 346 

The Last Days at Custrin, ------ 353 

CHAPTER VI. 

THE MARRIAGE OF FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

The Intentions of Austria, ----- 369 

The Declaration of the King, ----- 375 

The Double Play of the Crown Prince, - - 382 

From the Betrothal to the Marriage, - - - 388 

The Anglo-Austrian Intrigue, - - . . 400 

The Marriage, .---.... 406 

CHAPTER VII. 

Conclusion, - 421 

Notes, 427 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. 



DOCUMENTS CONSULTED. 

Political correspondence in the archives of the Minister of 
Foreign Affairs of France, documents upon Prussia, years from 
1725 to 1733, vols. LXXXIII. to XCVI. 

Beitrag zur Lebensgeschichte Friedriehs des Grossen, wel- 
cher einen merkwurdigen Briefivechsel iiber den ehemcdigen 
Aufenthalt des getachten Konigs zu Ciistrin enthdlt, Berlin, 
1788. 

Brief e Friedrich des Grossen und seiner erlauchter Briider 
Prinzen August Wilhelm und Heinrich von Preussen cms der 
Zeit von 1121 bis 1162 an die Gebrilder Friedrich Wilhelm und 
Friedrich Ludicig, Felix von Borcke, Potsdam. 1881.^ 

Urknndenbuch zu der Lebensgeschichte Friedrich Wilhelms 
I., second part of vol. II. of Dr. Friedrich Forster's book, Fried- 
rich Wilhelms I. Konig v. Preussen, 3 vols., Potsdam, 1731-35. 
The third volume of this work comprises the Nachtrdge Zum 
ersten Bancle, and the Nachtrdge zum zweiten Bande, in which 
is found a great number of the documents referred to in this 
book. 

Works of Frederick the Great, 30 vols., Berlin, 1816-1857, 
vols. XVI. to XXVII. 

Urkundenbuch zu der Lebensgeschicte Friedriehs des Gros- 
sen, by J. D. E. Preuss, five parts, Berlin, 1832-4. In the sup- 
plement to the first part, which is inserted in the second, is 
found the Briefiveschel Friedriehs des Grossen mit seinem 
Vater (1730-1734). 

Memoirs of Frederica Sophia Wilhelmina, Margravine of 
Baireuth, 3d edition, Paris.* 



XIV BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

VoUstdndige ProtocoUe cles Kopenicker Kreigsgerichts 
uber Kronprinz Friedrichs, Lieutenant von Katte, von Kait, 
u. s. IV., Berlin, 1861. 

AUTHORS CONSULTED. 

Bratuscheck, Die Erzieliung Friedrichs des Grossen, Ber- 
lin, 1885. 

Due DE Broglie, Frederick II., and Maria Theresa, 2 vols., 
Paris, 1883. 

Carlyle, History of Frederick II. of Prussia, 6 vol, London, 
1858-65, German translation of Neuberg and Althaus, 6 vol., 
Berlin, 1858-69. 

Cramer, Zur Geschichte Friedrich Wilhelms I. und Fried- 
richs II., 2d edition, Leipsic, 1833. 

Droysen (J. G.), Friedrich Wilhelm, Konig von Preussen, 
2 vol., Leipsic, 1869; in the Geschichte der preussisschen Politik, 
by the same author. 

Fassmann, Leben und Thaten des Allerdurchlaiichtigsten 
und Grossmdchtigsten Konigs von Preussen Friederici-Wil- 
helmi, Hamburg and Breslau, 1735. 

FoRSTER (cited above when mentioning the Urkunden- 
buch zu der Lehensgeschichte Fr. W. I.) 

FoNTANE, the second part of the Wanderungen durch die 
Mark Brandenburg {das Oderland Barnim-Lebus) 4th edition, 
Berlin, 1889 

KosER, Friedrich der Grosse als Kronprinz, Stuttgart, 1886. 

Kramer, Neue Bietrdge zur Geschichte August Herman 
Francke's, Halle, 1875. 

Pierson, Konig Friedrich Wilhelm I. in Den Denkicilr- 
digkeiten der Markgrdfin von Baireuth, Halle, 1890. 

Preuss, Friedrichs des Grossen Jugend und Thronbesteig- 
ung, Berlin, 1840. and Friedrich der Grosse mit seinen Ver- 
ivantden und Freunden, Berlin, 1836. 

Ranke, Zivolf Bucher preiissischer Geschichte, 5 vols., 2d 
edition, Leipsic, 1878-79, vols. XXV-XXIX of the Sdmmtliche, 
Werke. 



BIBTJOGRAPHY, XV 

Raumer, Preusften von Jalire 1730 bis 1740, Friederichs II. 
Jugendzeit, to the vol. I. of 3d part, Leipsic. 1839, from the Bei- 
trdge zur neueren Geschichte, aus dem hritischen und franzo- 
sischen Reichsar chive. 

Waddington (Albert), The Acquisition of the Royal Crown 
of Prussia by the Hohenzollerns, Paris, 1888. 

Weber (Von) Von berliner Hofe unter Konig Friedrich 
Wilhehu I. in Aus vier, Jahrhunderten, Mittheilungen aus 
dem Haiu^t'Staats Archive zu Dresden, Neiie Folge, 2 vol. 
Leipsic, 1861. 



THE YOUTH 



OF 



FREDERICK THE GREAT 



CHAPTER I. 

CHILDHOOD BIRTH THE GRANDFATHER ACCESSION OF 

THE FATHER. 

TpREDERlCK THE GREAT was born in Berlin, 
-^ January 24, 1712, to Frederick William, Crown 
Prince of Prussia, and Sophia Dorothea of Hanover, 
during the reign of his grandfather, Frederick, the 
first Hohenzollern who wore the royal crown. His 
maternal grandfiather, George, Elector of Hauover,* 
was the heir of Queen Anne of England, whom he 
succeeded in 1714. 

At the time of Frederick's birth, the Houses of 
Brandenburg and Hanover were in the enjoyment of 
great prosperity ; to the one it had come, by the other 
it was with pleasure anticipated. During the eleven 
years that he was king, Frederick I. was unwearied in 
admiring and celebrating his royal dignity. He arose 
very early in "the morning that he might have a longer 
time to enjoy the pleasure of being king, and officiated 



2 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

until evening. There was majesty at the council, at 
table, in the smoking-room ; majesty in the presence of 
the qeeen. His garments were fastened with buttons 
of gold and diamonds, and his perukes came from 
Paris. When he traveled from place to place, it was 
in great pomp. His journeys by land were long, slow, 
magnificent processions of coaches. A boat from Hol- 
land or a gondola bore him upon the water. He spoke 
of himself and of the queen, his wife, with circumlocu- 
tions of etiquette, enveloping in solemnity his name, 
as well as his person. He was not a wicked man, on 
the contrary, he was a good husband, and a good 
father to his family. ^ He kept a mistress, only to 
imitate Louis XIV. through a professional point of 
honor. 

The birth of Frederick was welcomed by him with 
more than usual pleasure, as two of his grandsons had 
already died at an early age. It was rumored in Ber- 
lin that they had been victims of the contingencies 
of royalty, neither one being able to bear, on his bap- 
tismal day, the noise of the cannons and firecrackers, 
the weight of the silk mantle, the diamond insignia 
of the Black Eagle, and the golden crown in which 
he was arrayed. In reality, the poor little things 
died a very ordinary death from teething. So King 
Frederick watched with anxiety for the first tooth of 
little Fritz. This child appeared to him to be born 
to a glorious destiny, because his birth took place in 
January, that is to say, in the month of his own 
coronation, at Konigsburg, eleven years before. He 
desired that the baj^tism should be celebrated before 



CHILDHOOD. 3 

the end of the "month of coronation," and that his 
grandson should be called Frederick, "the name of 
Frederick having always brought good fortune to his 
House." 

January 31st, the child, crown on head, clothed in 
a robe of silver tissue, studded with diamonds, the train 
of which was held up by six countesses, Avas carried 
to the chapel of the palace, under a canopy supported 
by a princess and two princes. The king, also, under 
a canopy which was supported at the corners by four 
chamberlains, its silk pendants held by four knights 
of the Order of the Black Eagle, awaited him. The 
godfathers and godmothers represented were the Em- 
peror, Czar Peter, the States-General of Holland, the 
Canton of Berne and the Elector of Hanover, the Em- 
press Dowager, the Electress and the Electress-mother 
of Hanover, the Duchess of Brunswick and the Dow- 
ager Duchess of Mecklenburg. The States-General 
sent, among other baj^tismal presents, a gold box, con- 
taining a deed of annuity of four thousand florins. 
All the bells of the city, three salvos of cannon, as well 
as drums and trumpets, announced to the people of 
Berlin that the world counted one more Christian. The 
cortege in procession re-entered the apartments between 
files of Swiss and a body-guard. ^ 

Fritz showed a desire to live. His grandfather saw 
with pleasure how bravely he drew the breast. His 
teeth came very quickly, six at the end of six months, 
and without causing him the least inconvenience. "One 
can see in this," wrote Frederick, "a kind of predes- 
tination. May God preserve him to us a long time 
yet."« 



4 . FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

It was the grandfather that God did not preserve 
a long time to the grandson. Frederick I. died Feb- 
ruary 27, 1713. The child, who had received at 
birth the titles of Prince of Prussia and of Orange, 
became the Crown Prince. 

The new king, Frederick AVilliam, had manifested 
from childhood a violent" aversion for ceremonies and 
luxury. One day, when quite a small child, curled, 
powdered, clad in a gala costume, he hid himself in 
a chimney, whence he was pulled out, black as a 
chimney-sweep. He threw a brocaded night-robe into 
the fire, soon after it was tried on him. The sight 
of the big perukes made him furious. Finding some 
courtiers in his father's antechamber, warming them- 
selves, with their heads thrown back, so as not to 
scorch their beautiful periwigs, which had cost them 
200 thalers, he forced them to throw their wigs into the 
fire. Another time, they jiicked up at the foot of the 
staircase a inaitre de la cour whom he had kicked to the 
,bottom. He was extremely parsimonious, and kept 
an exact account of his receipts and expenditures, in 
a faultless register, on the first page of which he had 
written: '^Rechnimg iiber meine Ducaten, — Account of 
my Ducats." "Miser," exclaimed his mother, "and 
at so tender an age ! " But no remonstrance corrected 
it. Magnificence gave him nausea, and prodigality 
fits of rage. 

After having received the last sigh of his father, 
Frederick William left the chamber of death, passed 
through the crowd of weeping chamberlains, pages 
and people of the Court, and shut himself up in 



CHILDHOOD. 5 

his own apartments. After deliberating there a 
short while, he requested the Grand-Marshal, Von 
Printzen, to bring him the "Court Register." He ran 
over the list of dignitaries, servitors and pensioners, 
seized a pen, and made a great mark from top to 
bottom, saying that he would do away with them all, 
but wished each one to remain at his post, until after 
the funeral ceremonies of his father. Printzen came 
out, saying not a word, but he had so troubled a look 
upon his face, that one of the courtiers, the best pro- 
vided with titles and functions. Lieutenant von Tettau, 
Chamberlain, Chief of the Body-guard, Governor of^ 
Spandau, Knight of the Black Eagle, stopped him, 
and took the paper out of his hands. He saw the big 
mark. "Gentlemen," said he, "the king our good mas- 
ter is dead, and the new king sends us all to the devil." 
All of the long-peruked crowd were jjresent May 2, 
1713, at the obsequies of Frederick I. The son wished 
to have his father interred, as he had lived, with, great 
pomp. The ceremonies lasted more than two months. 
The body remained eight days in state, upon a bed of 
red velvet, embroidered in pearls, enriched with crowns 
and golden eagles ; upon his head was the crown ; 
upon his shoulders, the mantle of purple and ermine; 
on his chest, the Grand Cordon and Order of the Black 
Eagle; at right and left the scepter and the sword. 
The chamber, hung with violet velvet, was illuminated 
with a profusion of wax candles. On March 4, the 
body, clothed in cloth of gold, was placed in the 
coffin, and carried to the palace chapel, which was 
transformed into a Castruin dohn's. On the second of 



6 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

May, between lines of regiments — nearly all the Prus- 
sian army was there ^ — the funeral cortege proceeded 
to' the cathedral. Behind Count Dohna, the gen- 
eral who held the standard, the new king advanced, 
enveloped in a long mantle of mourning, the train of 
which was carried by the grand equerry, the entire 
Court following. In the church, transformed into a 
mausoleum, the white marble statues of the Hohen- 
zollern Electors of Brandenburg were placed around 
the catafalque, as a guard of honor for the first of their 
descendants who had attained to the distinction of roy- 
alty. Pictures and inscriptions recalled the principal 
virtues of the deceased. 

The solemn service ended, Frederick William himself 
ordered the salvos. Then he returned to his own apart- 
ments. He had given a rare proof of filial piety in 
j^rolonging the ceremonies two months. It was a great 
relief to him when he had interred this ceremonial life 
with his father, and, saw dispersed the grand officials, 
the chamberlains, the pages, the twenty-six drum- 
mers and trumpeters, who announced all the move- 
ments of^ the king, the musicians of- the royal 
chapel, and the hundred Swiss 'guards clothed in silk, 
velvet and gold. The useless ones, who did not ex- 

' change the gold key for the pistol, or pumps for the 
boots of a cuirassier, went "to the devil." The pearls, 

, precious stones and diamonds were sold to pay the debts 

of the late king, who was always sadly in need. Then 

/Frederick William commenced to live the life of a well- 

, to-^o civilian, economical to avarice, ordering his house- 
hold himself, keeping a strict account with his cook. 



CHILDHOOD. 



Thus two months had not elapsed before he had levied 
two new battalions of grenadiers. ^ 



THE GOVERNESS THE FIRST MASTERS THE PRECEPTOR 

AND THE SUB-PRECEPTOR. 

Frederick William wished his sons and daughters to 
be educated, not as princes and princesses, but as chil- 
dren of simple folk. He intended that. the inheritors 
of his crown should be otherwise dealt with, than the 
young king Louis XV. , whose least gesture and act the 
journals related to the world, and whom the Emperor 
called "the child of Europe." ^*^ As unassuming as he 
was, however, the King of Prussia could not refuse to 
give his son a governess, and at the proper age a pre- 
ceptor and a tutor. 

He had been educated by a French-woman, Madame 
de Montbail, for whom he always had an affection- 
ate remembrance, perhaps on account of the many 
bad tricks he had played her. So he wished that 
Madame de Montbail (she had become Madame de 
Rocoulle) should educate his children, and he there- 
fore appointed her "governess of the royal prince 
and princesses." The royal princesses were, at that 
time, in 1714, Sophia Frederica Wilhelmina, two 
and a half years older than the prince, and Char- 
lotte Albertina, a year and a half younger. Madame 
de Rocoulle was. to give the children religious instruc- 
tion, and teach them to read the Bible. The same 
year, while the King of Prussia was at the siege of 
Stralsund, he noticed a young cavalier who seemed 
pleased to place himself where there was the most dan- 



8 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

ger. The king had this young officer presented, while 
in a trench, by Count Dohna, who was acquainted with 
him, for he had confided a part of the education of 
his" own son to him; Frederick William engaged him 
to be, at the end of two years, the informator of 
the prince. This young man called himself Jacques 
Egide Duhan ; like Madame de Rocoulle, he was 
French. Installed in his functions, in 1716, he had 
to " exjilain maps to his pupil, teach him the history 
of the last hundred years and no more, then the history 
of the Bible, but, above all, calculation," Finally, 
when the prince was just attaining his seventh year, 
the king appointed his old preceptor, General Count 
Fink von Finkenstein, tutor, and Colonel von Kalkstein 
sub-tutor, u ' 

Little did the King of Prussia think that he was 
doing a grave thing in confiding the education of his 
son to these two groups of persons, whose ideas were 
so opposite, the French refugees and the Prussian 
officers. 

Said Frederick the Great later, "It is rare that one 
takes a tutor from a trench." It is rare, in fact, and 
very Prussian. Frederick William had as professional 
masters very grave men ; among them, Frederick Kra- 
mer, a learned philologist and jurisconsult, who, one 
day, becoming offended at a jesting discourse of 
Father Bouhours upon this theme: "Is it possible for 
a German to have wit?" replied by a dissertation en- 
titled: "Vindication of the Germanic name against 
certain Gaul detractors of the Germans, — Vindicim 
nominis Germanici contra quosdam Germanoruni obtrec- 



CHILDHOOD. 9 

tatores Gallos.'''' The king, who was not a pedant, and 
who loved not dissertations, hastened to obtain for the 
informator of his son, a cavalier. He did not know 
that this cavalier was a man of more learning than 
his Kramer. 

Jacques Egide Duhan de Jandun^^ was born at Jandun, 
in Champagne, the year of the revocation of the Edict 
of Nantes. Plis father, former secretary of Tnrennc 
and former Counselor of State, left France in 1687, 
and went to Berlin, where he became secretary of the 
Great Elector. He undertook the education of his son 
himself, and did not send him to the "Gymnase Fran- 
gais," then recently opened. He taught him the lan- 
guages, classical literature, history and rhetoric. The ' 
paternal lessons were supplemented by thoise of La 
Croze anc\ De Naude. ' 

Naude left Metz in 1685, the same day that they 
closed the last Protestant church in that city. Arriv- 
ing in Berlin in 1687, he gained a livelihood by giving 
lessons in mathematics ; after that he gave instruc- 
tion in mathematics, first, in the College of Joachims- 
thal, afterward, in the Academy of Arts. But his 
favorite study was theology, upon which he brought 
to bear the strength of his mind as a geometrician. 
He composed two volumes upon evangelical morals.'^ 

La Croze had been a monk in the monastery of St. 
Germain-des-Pres. In 1693, tormented by conscienti-ous 
scruples, he fled to Bale and made a profession of Pro- 
testantism. Berlin attracted French refugees in great 
numbers : the nobles Avere assured of finding a place 
in the army or at the court ; the magistrates, in tlic 



10 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

tribunals; the men of letters, in intellectual offices, 
where they had but little to fear from native compe- 
tition. La Croze went then to Berlin, where he was 
put in charge of the Electoral Library, which became 
the Royal Library three years afterward. He was 
himself a library, "a regular storehouse," said Fred- 
erick later. His memory was prodigious. One day, 
before Leibnitz, he recited twelve verses in a dozen 
different languages, after having heard them but once. 
No question sui^prised him : he had an answer for 
everything. Whenever he was asked for information, 
and referred to a book, he gave the edition and page. 
In addition to his native language, he spoke fluently, 
English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and German. He 
understood Latin, ancient and modern Greek and Hebrew. 
He learned the Slavic, Basque and Oriental languages, 
and among them, in order to please Leibnitz, Chinese. 
He was not a profound philologist; he had neither 
the taste nor the time to penetrate into the genius of 
the languages that he studied, because he was of an 
inquisitive mind, and learned, simply because he could 
not refrain from learning everything he saw. He knew, 
in the same way, philosophy and history. All his 
learning manifested itself in his conversation; without 
cessation, he discoursed, narrated, cited and recited. 
He told droll stories in the tone of a psalmodist, for 
this ungarbed monk still showed the cut of his frock. ^* 
Duhan de Jandun, the father. La Croze, and Naude, 
were indirectly Frederick's masters, since they edu- 
cated his master. Moreover, the prince knew La Croze 
and Naude, as he had often seen and heard them 



CHILDHOOD. 11 

when a child. These three men were autodidacts, 
and there is no better culture for minds born thought- 
ful and capable of study, than that which they give 
to themselves ; for school, with its precise rules and 
hieratic customs, does not allow enough j^lay to the 
intellect. It is true that all times are not propitious 
for the free exercise of personal education. But the 
eighteenth century offered such admirable facilities for 
the expansion of free effort! In our day, only the 
greatest intellects acquire an entire science, master and 
classify it in the concourse of knowledge : the others, 
in the throng, dwell painfully upon the detail, which 
continually increases and multiplies, hiding the science 
from them, like the trees -that prevent one from see- 
ing the forest. Toilsome lives serve out their time in 
little corners of the intellectual domain. In the eio-ht- 
eenth century this whole domain was exposed to view : 
it could be surveyed with ease. Inquiry was univer- 
sal and truly philosophical. The men of that time, — 
to whom an extensive reading gave, together with 
great literary, historical, and scientific culture, the il- 
lusion of believing that they knew^ everything that 
could be known, — lived in a continual intellectual fete 
that the world will never see again. 

The childhood of Frederick was thus confided to 
French people. It is true that they were exiles. The 
opinions that they brought with them were not those 
of the majority of their nation, which had, alas I wel- 
comed with T(i Deums the persecution of tliese her- 
etics. Calvinism had marked them with its grave 
impress, which had frightened and rebuffed a ])e()pU» 
naturally gay. 



12 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

A gentler influence was exercised over the soul of 
Frederick by his governess. She, too, had sacrificed 
her country for her religion. Widow of M. de Mont- 
bail, and still young, she took her family to a foreign 
country, the day after the revocation of the Edict of 
Nantes, at a time when an exodus was not without 
peril. This courageous woman had also mind. She 
spoke her language prettily and knew how to turn a 
verse well. It seems that she was not afraid of an 
amusing joke, even if it was a little broad. She knew 
how to hold a salon, a rare thing in Berlin. ^^ It was 
at the Court itself, that she found a refuge, near 
Sophia Charlotte, wife of Frederick I., who so little 
resembled her husband. The gazettes of the time 
state that nature lavished upjon this princess charms 
of both body and mind. Sophia Charlotte was gay 
and artless, and she had a bewitching way of making 
game of her solemn husband. The day of his coro- 
nation, in all that pomp of pomps, she drew forth her 
snuffbox and took a pinch of snuff. And yet she 
was serious, and^ religious, with that charming restless- 
ness of a woman philosopher, abhorring the unknown. 
Pier religion and her philosophy enlightened each other, 
but neither the one nor the other, nor the two united, 
pretended to possess the full light. So her curiosity 
was never satisfied; unceasingly, she demanded of her 
friend Leibnitz the why of whys, that he could not 
answer. She loved the arts, as well as philosophy, 
and music above all. She had also a taste for poetry.'^ 

The memory of Sophia Charlotte had that particular 
charm of a queen who had made herself beloved. 



CHILDHOOD. 13 

Her name recalled the brilliancy of the old court, and 
its intellectual life. It evoked a past entirely different 
from that uncouth, strange present, in which they lived 
under the reign of Frederick William I. Madame de 
Rocoulle kept fresh in the minds of the children of 
Prussia the memory and the sayings of the good queen.'' 
Frederick's eldest sister would have liked to be 
called Charlotte, and would have desired nothing so 
much as to resemble her grandmother. Frederick must 
have often heard his governess speak of this lettered, 
philosophical, and musical queen. 

And, finally, when one seeks to recognize all the 
vague world of influences which surround and pene- 
trate the soul of a child, one should not neglect this 
little fact : during the thi^rty years that she was in Ger- 
many, Madame de Rocoulle had never -learned a word 
of the language. She remained purely French. 

General Fink and Colonel Kalkstein'^ were men oi^ 
culture, the latter particularly ; he was to have his part 
in the education of Frederick. But the king chose them 
both for their virtues as soldiers. ^ 

Kalkstein was thirty-six years old when he was ap- ■ 
pointed tutor to the prmce. He had made his first 
venture at arms in the service of Hesse Cassel. Freder- 
ick William had known him in the Netherlands, when, 
as Heir-apparent of Prussia, he was serving his military 
apprenticeship under Prince Eugene. 

Kalkstein distinguished himself in the battle of Mal- 
piaquet. He joined the Prussian army as volunteer, 
during the campaign of Pomerania, in 1714, and the 
' king had taken him into service in the capacity of 
lieutenant-colonel. 



14 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

General Fink was sixty years old ; a veteran of the 
European wars. Born in Prussia, of a very old family, 
which was established in the time of the Teutonic 
Order, he w^as seventeen, when he entered, as volunteer, 
the army of the Prince of Orange. He served in the 
campaigns of 1676 and 1677 against France, and was 
wounded and taken prisoner. In order to regain his 
liberty, he accepted the offer of passing into the French 
army, and fought against the Spaniards on the Pyrenees 
frontier. He then became an officer of some note, and 
was known to Louvois. Peace concluded, he obtained 
permission to go into Brandenburg and make recruits. 
The Great Elector graciously welcomed him: "Your 
father," said he, "was my chamberlain, and an honest 
man ; he broke his leg on my account. One day, at 
Cleves, I desired to enter the castle by passing over a 
plank ; he wished to see if it was firm, and he broke 
his leg. .. . Conduct yourself well, and, if it pleases 
you to enter my service, I will take care of you. " Fink 
Returned to France, but soon left it, as did most of his 
compatriots, Avhen the war of the Coalition of Augs- 
burg broke out. He offered himself to the Great 
Elector. As he had been captain in the French army, 
he passed to the rank of major in that of Brandenburg. 
Until the Peace of Ryswick, he fought in the cam- 
paigns on the Rhine, always distinguishing himself. 
During the War of the Spanish Succession, he almost 
attained renown. At Hochstedt, in August, 1704, it 
was he, perhaps, who assured victory to the Coali- 
tionists by the disposition that he made of the right 
wing of their army. He was then a general, and the • 



CHILDHOOD. 15 

Crown Prince Frederick William's preceptor. lie took 
the Crown Prince with him to the Netherlands, and was 
one of the heroes of Malplaquet. To recompense him 
for his services, the Emperor, upon the proposition of 
Prince Eugene, named him Count of the Empire. 
Frederick William, on his accession, showed him all the 
favor of which he was capable. Fink accompanied his 
new master in the Pomeranian campaign. 

As preceptor of Prince Frederick, he represented to 
this child war considered as the profession of nobles, 
war loved for itself, and sought for everywhere, as 
the chevaliers of old sought it in the crusades and in 
adventure. This profession of arms was not en- 
tirely confined to one nation. The royal and imperial 
armies and those of the United Provinces were filled 
with foreigners. The common soldier is a kind of 
workman in military corporations, who makes his tour 
of the world, and stops where the trade is flourishing, 
that is to say, where war, swooping down and fastening 
upon some rich country, is capable of nourishing its 
artisans. As soon as the country is impoverished, the 
news is spread abroad, and they say that war is "played 
out" in Flanders, or on the Rhine, or in Lombardy. ' 
It is then necessary to pay the soldier more. ' In this 
league the nobleman exercises the right of going from 
place to place. He has no scrujjles in changing camp, 
provided he does not fight face to face with his prince. 
Taken by the French in Flanders, where he fought 
against them, he will serve them in the Pyrenees, 
against the Spaniards. His prince does not become 
angry with him; on the contrary, he praises him for his 



16 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

bravery, and, if the officer takes orders again under him, 
he retains the rank he acquired in the opposing camp. 
At that time Europe presented a strange picture of in- 
ternational advancement for these military noblemen. 
These officers were true men of war, who had served 
under all the illustrious chiefs, and had observed the 
diversity of their temper and genius. Fink had known 
the Prince of Orange, Luxembourg, Louvois, Prince Eu- 
gene, Marlborough, — to name only the most celebrated, — 
and in the greatest actions of the gigantic struggle 
where the fortunes of Ancient France were crushed, he 
could say: "I was there, and such a thing happened 
to me." 

Fink of Finkenstein and Kalkstein had been chosen 
from the Pleiades of Prussian warriors. The Court, if 
one could so call the 2>ersons around Frederick William, 
was full of officers, so tightly laced in their short coats 
that they were almost ready to suffocate. The cham- 
berlains whom the king had retained were four generals. 
His dining and smoking apartments were open, through 
preference, to the veterans of the battlesxof the Rhine 
anid Danube. A very rude, half-barbarous company, to 
say the least, uncouth ; eating, drinking, smoking and 
talking with him. ^ 

The principal personage was Leopold, reigning 
Prince of Anhalt-Dessau, as noble as the Emperor and 
Kins of Prussia, and even of older nobilitv, for his 
ancestor, Albert the Bear, Margrave of Brandenburg, 
j^layed his role in the great affairs of Christianity, in 
the time of Frederick Barbarossa, when the Hohenzoll- 
erns, and Hapsburgs, too, were but mites in the dust of 



CHILDHOOD. 17 

small dynasties that overran the Empire. Leopold's 
family was closely allied to the royal family of Prussia. 
From his palace to the Palace of Berlin was but a day's 
journey by post. As he was not a person to fall asleep 
in his peruke in some little imitative Versailles, he en- 
tered the service of Prussia. He also had learned war, 
by war. He had made his first venture at arms with 
his cousin, William of Orange ; sieges, skirmishes, bat- 
tles, he loved passionately. During the War of the 
Spanish Succession he was at Blenheim, in the right 
wing, under the orders of Prince Eugene. In the midst 
of the general confusion of the Austrian cavalry he 
remained firm, attacking, reeoiling, maneuvering, send- 
ing forth volley after volley, until Marlborough, who 
was victorious on the left wing, came to his aid. He 
was at the Cassano bridge, "during the. heaviest fight- 
ing I ever saw," said Prince Eugene ; for hours he 
remained in the river with his infantry, which was 
partly d^estroyed. 

At the attack of the lines of Turin, in 1706, he was 
the first to leap into the entrenchment. As the French 
remained steadfast at their post, and the combat was 
prolonged, Anhalt, dying of hunger and thirst, stepped 
to one side for a moment; he caught sight of a cap- 
tain: "Ami wounded?" "Ko, Your HighnessI" — 
"No? Then have you something to drink?" He 
swallowed a glass of brandy, then a piece of bread 
that a grenadier gave him, and returned to his post. 
He was also at the siege of Stralsund and at Mal- 
plaquet. 

The Prince of Anhalt was skilled in the science 



18 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

of war. It is said that it was he who invented the 
marching in step, and the iron ramrod. He constantly 
studied tactics, and he carried to great perfection^ 
the drill a la Prussian. He had been the principal 
collaborator and inspirer of Frederick William ; he 
proposed reforms and tested them ; the king renewed 
the experience and decided. When these two men 
found it impossible to be together, they corresponded 
in short letters like business men. Leopold was, like 
the king, an administrator as well as a soldier ; good 
economist, he knew that it wJ^s through "careful man- 
agement" that the soldiers were paid. He increased 
more than their gross value the revenues of his little 
principality. A peculiar person but yet agreeable, 
when it so pleased him, with princely manners, knowing 
how to speak French as well as a native, indeed even 
how to converse, but ordinarily disdaining to be 
gracious. His religion resembled that of the Reiters 
of the fifteenth century. He sung the Psalms to the 
tune of the "March of Dessau." On the field during 
action, he said, with he^d bared, a short prayer. He 
called Luther's hymn, — "A Mighty Fortress is Our 
God," — "The March of the Dragoons of Our Lord." 
: Contemner* of forms and established customs, this 
prince of the Empire married an apothecary's daughter, 
to the great scandal of the country at large. His fame 
and .his victories obtained from the Emperor the recog- 
nition of Fraulein Fos as a legitimate princess. The 
whole personality of Anhalt was expressive. He was 
tall, bony, hairy, and wore a heavy mustache on his 
clear strong lip. He had an open eye, and a pene- 



CHILDHOOD. 1 9 

trating look like all observing people. His face, 
discolored by gunpowder, was framed in a solid jaw. 
His physiognomy was full of d.etermination, of resolu- 
tion, and seemed to say: "Let come, what will." 
It was that of a man of strength, a servitor to the 
wishes of a master who employe^ himself in forging 
this strength.^** 

Fink, Kalkstein, Anhalt, on the one side ; on the other, 
French refusjees : these are Frederick's teachers, these 
the ^environments and influences at Avork upon his 
youthful mind. The former are war veterans, the 
latter, martyrs to the faith, who sacrificed honors, 
fortune, country (and such a country!) to. the service 
of God. The lives of all were lessons of heroism, 
but the officers were, according to the king's idea, his 
son's only instructors. Compared with them, thQinform- 
atoi\ Duhan, was a small personage, hardly visible. 
The object of the education being to make of him a 
chief of state, and a chief of war, the true masters 
should be the king's generals. The principal merit 
of Duhan was his brave conduct under fire of. the 
Swedes: philosophy, science, letters, these the King 
of Prussia did not take into account at all. 

Frederick AVilliam did not know that he was going 
to put Minerva and Bellona into competition in the 
mind of his son. This Spartan did not burn tht^ 
smallest grain of incense upon the altar of the goddess 
of Athens. Had he seen in Duhan all this vast 
world of thought and learning, he would have turned 
his head away, instead of having this young man 
presented to' him in the trench at Stralsund. 



20 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

Without either the knowledge or the wish, he offered 
to his son the double education which accorded best 
with his nature and with the genius which slumbered 
within him. 

IXSTEUCTIOX TO THE PRECEPTORS. 

According to custom, Frederick William remitted to 
the preceptors an Instruction upon the education of 
his son. He utilized the one that had been given to 
his own instructor, in 1695, by the king his father; 
but there were some corrections made, which were 
.certainly from his own hand. 

Frederick I. used the majestic style of language as 
was his custom.^" He began by thanking God for 
His kindness in giving to him an heir "to so many 
and such great countries," "to such magnificent coun- 
tries." He professed to be overpowered with the 
responsibilities im^^osed upon him, in the education of 
a prince, upon whom depended "the salvation and 
happiness of so many millions of men." He said in 
speaking of himself: "We"; of his wife and son, 
"our revered wife the Dilection, our well-beloved 
son." Frederick William divested the words of their 
flourishes. As his millions of subjects did not amount 
to two, he did not enumerate them. As his countries 
were not so magnificent, he struck out the epithet, 
and said "the countries," "all the countries." He 
wrote: "I," "My wife," "My son." 

The Instruction for 1695 may be divided into five 
parts : Moral and religious training ; intellectual train- 
ing ; training in deportment ; physical training ; pre- 



CHILDHOOD. 21 

scriptions relative to the jn-erogatives of the preceptor, 
to the supervision that he must exercise over the 
prince, to the authority with which the king invested 
him. Frederick William retained these divisions but, 
in each one of them, he left out or added something. 

The chapter on intellectual training was abridged. 
Frederick I. had desired that his son should learn 
Latin, history with geography and genealogy, French 
and mathematics. Upon each subject he deduced his 
reasons. He feared, it is true, that the "Dilection of 
his son" would dwell too long upon themes and rules, 
experience having proved "that the humdrum of gram- 
raatical exercises disgusted young princes with the 
beautiful Latin language"; but the study of this lan- 
guage appeared indispensable, because the Golden Bull 
decreed it, because Latin was employed in diplomacy 
by several powers, and finally because it was a great 
aid in an historical or political education. The king 
then ordered that his son should learn the rules, "as 
much as possible with pleasure and while playing"; 
that "the ephor," — it is thus he named the preceptor 
of the Dilection, — "should practice an agreeable Latin 
history" so that the prince would learn the history and 
the language at the ^ame time. The said ephor mu>^t 
give his lessons in Latin, speak only Latin "in their 
walks or drives," and make the prince learn by heart 
aphorisms taken from the best authors, "which couhl 
be used on every occasion." 

Through this beautiful passage, as well as through 
the fine "State of the Court," Frederick AVilliam drew 
a long mark : "As for the Latin language, my son sliall 



22 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

not learn it." Reasons lie did not give, but as he 
foresaw that he might be questioned, he added : "I for- 
bid any one whomsoever to make remarks upon this 
subject." 

The Instruction for 1695 treated wisely of the 
stucUum historicum. It recommended giving the most 
time and attention to the history of modern times, 
particularly to th-at of Brandenburg and the Houses 
allied to the family of Prussia, but to commence also 
with an exposition of universal history, from the crea- 
tion of the world. It is very complimentary to history, 
"that study preferable to all others, for it is both 
entertaining and edifying." The Instruction for 1718 
cancels these compliments ; it forbids the study of 
"ancient history" otherwise than a passing glance ^ — 
{ilherhi7i)\ "but the history of our epoch, that is to 
say, of the last hundred and fifty years, should be 
pointed out in the most exact way, aufdas gencmeste . . 
especially that of the reigning House" . . . For this 
purpose, "the library and archives will be open to the 
prince." Frederick William greatly desired that history 
should serve as matter for reflection upon the cause of 
events, and for discerning "that^which had been well 
and that which had been badly done." But he meant 
it to be, above all, a preparation for the very affairs in 
which one day the prince would be occupied. The 
pupil would find in previous history contained in the 
archives, exact testimonies of a true history. The king, 
perhaps, was hoping that his son would show a pref- 
erence for the parchments wherein were inscribed the 
rights of the House with the largest inheritance. 



CHILDHOOD. 23 

The article upon mathematics pleased Frederick 
William; the point at issue being, principally, military 
mathematics which treat "of fortifications, the form- 
ation of a camp and other sciences of war." But on 
reading the passage again, he noticed this consideration ; 
that a prince "must be instructed, from childhood," 
in the calling of a general"; he wrote " /yi the calling 
of an officer and general," thinking it was not exactly 
congruous to make a baby, all at once, a general. 
However, as the main idea pleased him and it was, 
according to his notion, the essential one, he insisted : 
"They must inculcate in my son the veritable love for 
a soldier's life, impress him with the id-ea, that noth- 
ing in the world is more capable of giving a prince 
more glory than the sword ; that he would be a 
despicable creature, on this earth, if he did not love 
this sword, if he did not seek in it and through it 
the only glory, — die einzige Gloire.^'' 

The Instruction for 1695 prescribed the study of 
the French language by exercises and by reading 
good French books. Frederick William added it was 
necessary "to see that his son should become accus- 
tomed to an elegant, concise style, in French as well 
as in German." Frederick I. had forgotten to men- 
tion German. He had also forgotten political economy 
and constitutional law, which Frederick William in- 
troduced in the place left vacant by Latin. 

The chapter on deportment was shortened, as one 
might expect. Frederick William consented that his 
son should be taught to converse well, to turn a 
gratitlatio, or harangue an army, in order to excite it 



24 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

to vigorous action, to argue in Councils, to make a 
summary of advices, and pass judgment. But he 
suppressed here the word "eloquence," for it was 
sufficient that his son should learn to express himself 
"clearly and purely." He crossed out a solemn dis- 
sertation "on the decorum more suitable for a reign- 
ing prince than for any other human being," upon 
the pro^^er ways of gaining obedience and love of 
subjects, and the necessary intermingling "of majesty 
and humanity." He simply said: "See that my son 
has good morals and befitting deportment, and agree- 
able^ manners, but no pedantry." 

There is almost complete accord in regard to physi- 
~cal culture, requiring careful gradation, so as never to 
exceed the child's strength ; the same as regards the 
"honest recreations" of the -pupil; but Frederick 
William did not wish these precautions to go so far 
'as to enervate the -body, for it must be inured to a 
hard life. As there was nothing he disliked more 
than laziness, he ordered them to imbue the j)rince 
'^with the greatest possible disgust for this vice, one 
of the worst of all v,ices." 

He prescribed the most rigorous measures in regard 
to the "frequentations" of his son.^ The preceptors 
must nevei' leave him ^lone ; one of them must always 
be with him, even at night. They should choose 
with care the prince's table companions. They must 
submit to the king the list of persons that they pro- 
pose admitting to the pre^sence of his son. Concerning 
the dangers Vvdiich may arise at the age of puberty, 
the king said — calling things by their names, which 



CHILDHOOD. 25 

will not bear repetition — "Have a care! for I make 
you both responsible with your heads." 

To him, the religious and moral education was 
much the most important. Here he added, "Develop 
and form it at the same time." 

He did not content himself with a commonplace 
phrase upon the necessity of instructing his son in 
the fear of God, that being the only restraint capable ' 
of controlling princes, for whom the world has neither 
punishment nor reward ; but he commanded that his 
son should be educated with a horror of Atheism, 
Arianism, Socinianism and Catholicism, these he stur- 
dily qualified as absurd. He defined the faith to ■ 
which he wished the prince to belong. The Protest- 
ant church was troubled with the quarrels of the 
Lutherans and Calvinists. The ambition of a few 
princes and thinkers like Leibnitz was to reunite the 
two sects; Frederick William passionately desired this, 
reconciliation. The chief obstacle was a grave dog- 
matic dissentation; the Lutherans taught that salvatioir' 
was accessible to all, that Christ died for all ; the 
Calvinists, that God jn-edestined, from the beginning, 
a certain number of men to be saved, and others to < 
be damned. The Lutherans were "Universalists," and 
the Calvinists, "Particularists." vBut there were L^ni- 
versalists among the Calvinists ; Frederick William was 
of the number. He had in this, as in everything else,. 
sirajjle, practical reasons. He did not care about being 
damned in advance. He understood that the L'niversal- 
ist-Calvinists were nearer than the others in coi^senting 
to the wished-for union. Aud to sum up, the doctrino 



26 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

of predestination appeared to him dangerous for the 
State, because it suppressed the responsibility of the 
subjects. He forbade these teachers to preach to the 
soldiers, for fear they might believe themselves pre- 
destined to desert the ranks, and desert for that reason. 
He wished then that the prince should be educated in the 
true Christian religion, of which "the principal dogma 
is, that Christ died for all men." "You must not 
make him a Particularist," said he ; "he must believe 
in universal salvation." 

The counsels on morality are also much more prac- 
tical in the Instruction for 1718. The king intended 
that his son should be warned against certain extrav- 
agant vanities, operas, comedies and other worldly 
amusements : "Give him a distaste for it ! " He forbade 
flattery, under penalty of incurring ' ' his greatest dis- 
pleasure." He commanded them to employ "every 
means imaginable" to combat with pride and arrogance. 
They must "accustom the prince to right management, 
economy, modesty, ancl have a care that he shall become 
a good economist, and learn by degrees all that is 
necessary in order to become so." 

The corrections made by Frederick William in the 
Instruction for 1695 rank him among the pedagogues 
who desire to make education a direct j^reparation for 
a practical life. The problem was fixed in his mind 
thus : Being given a child destined to the profession 
of king, over a certain country, Prussia, and at a given 
time in the history of this country, what must the 
child be taught? How to be King of Prussia, at 
this given time. Perhaps in other countries, the sons 



CHILDHOOD. 27 

of kings, the Dauphins, the Princes of Wales, the 
Infantes, have the time to study discourses upon univer- 
sal history, to learn Latin, and to seek aphorisms in 
the editions of classics arranged for their use. It may 
be the proper thing to have them drilled in fine man- 
ners ; to behave with dignity at a small or grand levee 
is not a thing so natural that a training is not neces- 
sary for it, but, in Prussia, the king rises all alone, 
to the drum tap, and retires without ceremony, after 
having smoked his i^ipe. He is not a potentate like 
the Kings of England, France, or Spain. Being "a 
king in trust," as Frederick William said, he did not 
belong to the great in history, and had nothing in 
common with the Kings or Emperors of Assyria, Egypt 
or Rome. Herodotus, Thucydides, Titus, Livy, Tacitus, 
did not know the names of Pomerania, Silesia, Meck- 
lenburg, Juliers, Berg, and other countries over which 
the "House "had rights^ They were ignorant even of 
the House itself. Of what use can they be? And 
their language ? How employ it in the army or in 
"economy?" 

A regiment is a regiment, not a legion ; a gun is a 
gun, not a pike ; a captain is a captain, not a centurion ; 
there is no word for colonel, and neither these Greeks 
nor these Romans knew anything about field-marshals. 
All this antique form is, then, cumbersome in its use- 
less ceremony ; it weighs down and burdens the mind, 
as the big peruke the movements of the head it over- 
heats and fatigues. A King of Prussia has need of a 
free mind and head. The late Frederick I. made a mis- 
take in wishing to have his crown prince educated like 



28 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

the son of a classic king. He had not meditated upon 
the fable of the frog Avho burst himself trying to get 
bigger. Hardly' seated in his royal chair, than he 
showed in every way that he was entirely satisfied with 
himself. He did wrong ; he should have descended 
from his throne, walked, ridden, and worked in real 
life. The honor of being king creates the duty of pos- 
sessing a true kingdom, and it is a very weak presump- 
tion to believe that the name suffices, and that one has 
the right, because one is titled like Louis XIV., to wear 
the same peruke as he. Then down with the peruke, 
majesty, ceremony, universal history and Latin dis- 
course. 

The reform of the Instruction for 1695 emanates 
from the same source as the Court reform, and leads to 
the same end. All that the king judged useless he sup- 
pressed. He prescribed for his son's mind the simple 
tenor of work, which should be that of the king, the 
Court and all that old monarchy born but yesterday, 
and which has its fortune to make. 

For these same reasons the king took away all cere- 
mony from the life of the pupil. He himself had 
been overwhelmed with pedagogical ceremony. ^^ In 
1695, the day that his preceptor. Count Dohna, was 
installed, the Court assembled to listen to a lengthy dis- 
course by Fuchs, the Minister of State : ' ' The swad- 
dling clothes of an infant born in the purple," said he, 
"inspire us always with a secret veneration, but often- 
times they cover a cruel Busiris instead of a magnani- 
mous Hercules ; a bloody Domitian instead of a humane 
and clement Titus." But Fuchs quickly modified this : 



CHILDHOOD. 29 

<' There can only come from the glorious blood of Bran- 
denburg and Brunswick a worthy successor of so many 
illustrious heroes, whose virtues have dazzled the whole 
universe." Then, pointing to the young prince: "These 
sparkling eyes, full of fire, this majestic and graceful 
bearing, do they not tell us in advance that a body so 
well formed must be animated by a mind better still ? 
This union of body and mind will combine in this 
prince, some day, the valor of a David, the wisdom of a 
Solomon, the clemency of an Augustus, the complais- 
ance of a Titus, so that he may be in his turn the de- 
light of mankind." . . . Frederick William, no 
doubt, had yawned during this fete of the inauguration 
of his studies. He hated metaphors. This realist had 
often spoken of the blue cloth of his soldiers, but never 
of the purple. 

He had been constrained to submit, from time to 
time, when he was a student, to examinations before the 
assembled Court, with the king sitting upon his throne. 

We have the ritual of one of these ceremonies, which 
lasted two days. " The first day," according to the pro- 
gram arranged by the ephors, "His Royal Highness 
will read from the printed and written German, write 
from dictation, solve a few arithmetical problems, read 
a French book selected by His Majesty, and relate in 
French the moral and the sense of a fcAV fables. He 
will translate, from Latin into German, passages from 
the Orhis pictus^ and from German into Latin, verses 
from the Bible. He will show what he knows of 
geography, confining himself to the map of Germany. 
The second day the prince will recite Latin sentences, 



30 FRl^DERICK THE GREAT. 

until His Majesty bids him cease. He will be ques- 
tioned upon an abridgment of profane and sacred histo- 
ry, upon the history of Brandenburg, and the geography 
of Germany in its minutest details ; area of the country, 
latitude and longitude, rivers, provinces, principal cities ; 
the immediate States of the Empire, with the extent of 
their territories ; division of the Emj^ire into circles, 
with their governors, etc." The program furthermore 
added that it was not necessary to mention the prayers, 
passages of Holy Scripture, Psalms and sacred hymns, 
as well as much other knowledge that had nourished the 
soul and formed the heart of His Royal Highness. 
They likewise made no mention of the military exer- 
cises, horsemanship, dancing, the harpsichord, the flute, 
everyone knowing that in these things His Highness 
was very proficient. 

These examinations had, doubtless, been insupport- 
able to the prince. He acquitted himself well enough, it 
seems, since the king rewarded him several times, count- 
ing out to him some bright ducats ; but it is probable 
that the ephors added some of their own, and contrived 
to make His Highness shine. They had an eye to their 
own fame and interest. At the end of the program, in 
post-8criptiun^ tt'ey implored the blessing of God and 
the gracious continuation of the confidence of their 
Majesties. They give themselves the credit of the sus- 
cess attained, in saying that "His Royal Highness, fol- 
lowing the ordinary run of minds which promise much 
of judgment and solidity, had difficulty in learning." 
All this savored strong of the Court comedy. Freder- 
ick William replaced this ceremonial by weekly recapit- 



CHILDHOOD, . 31 

ulations. Saturday morning the prince was questiojied 
upon the work of the week. If he had <' profited," he 
was at liberty for the afternoon. If not, he had to go 
over again, during a study of four hours, that which he 
did not know. 

The King of Prussia was accustomed to leave nothing 
to chance, and had the gift of seeing in everything 
the detail in its exact order ; his greatest pleasure was 
to draw up regulations. Thus he methodized, minute 
by minute, the occupation of his son's days. " 

Sundays the prince must rise at 7 a. m. As soon as 
he puts his slippers on he must kneel by his bed and 
recite this prayer aloud: "Lord God, Holy Father, I 
heartily thank Thee for having mercifully preserved me 
through this night. In the name of Jesus, my Savior, 
make me obedient to Thy Holy Will, and keep me 
from committing, either to-day or ever, an action that 
will separate me from Thee. Amen." The prayer said, 
the prince, quickly, hurriedly {geschwind^ hurtifj) must 
bathe, powder and dress himself. For the prayer and 
toilet he must employ an exact quarter of an hour. He 
must breakfast in seven minutes. Then the preceptor 
and all the domestics shall enter. All must kneel and 
recite the Lord's Prayer; they must listen to a reading 
from the Bible and sing a hymn. For this, twenty- 
three minutes. The preceptor must read, immediately 
after, the Gospel for Sunday, discourse upon it, and 
make the prince recite the Catechism. The prince must 
then be conducted to the king, with whom he will at- 
tend church and dine. The rest of the day is at his 
own disposal. At 9:30 p. m. he must bid his father 



32 ' FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

good-night, enter his own apartments, undress hastily 
[geschwind), and wash his hands. The preceptor shall 
read a prayer and sing a hymn ; the prince must be in 
"bed by 10:30 p. m. 

During the- week^ rise at 6 o'clock. The prince 
must not turn over in bed. He shall rise immediately 
{sogleich), kneel and say the little prayer ; then quickly 
(geschnnnd) put on his shoes, and bathe his face and 
hands, but without using soap ; he shall dress in his 
jacket and have his hair combed, but not j^owdered. 
While they comb his hair, he must drink his tea or 
coffee. At 6:30 o'clock the preceptor and domestics 
shall enter; reading of the Lord's Prayer and a chapter' 
in the Bible; then the singing of a hymn. After- 
ward shall follow the lessons, to be continued from seven 
until a quarter to eleven. Then the prince must 
hurriedly (^geschynncl) bathe his face and hands, using 
soap for the hands only. He must be powdered and 
put on his coat, then enter the king's presence, there 
to remain from eleven until two o'clock. After this, 
the lessons must be resumed to be continued until 5 
o'clock. The prince may then dispose of his time as 
he pleases until the hour for retiring, "provided he 
does nothing contrary to the will of God." The 
program ends with a last injunction to dress quickly, 
and always keep himself clean, — ''class er propre unci 
reinlich werde^ 

Thus, the king had foreseen everything, ordered 
everything, from the manner of washing his hands, to 
the form of his belief, disregarding entirely the method 
of cultivatino' the mind. He desired that his son 



CHILDHOOD. 33 

should be like him in everything, — exact, diligent, 
prompt, practical, devout, and soldierly. , He loved his 
boy. He used familiar expressions in speaking of 
him: "The rest of the day shall be for Fritz, — vor 
Fritzen.'''' He wished his son to love him. He, him- 
self, as a child, unquestionably had suffered much 
from the ceremonious reserve by which he was sepat- 
rated from his father, whom he *greatly feared. He 
forbade them to inspire Fritz with any feeling of fear 
in regard to him. Of course, his son must be sub- 
missive, but not servile — (skhwisch). The most impor- 
tant thing was, that the child should have confidence 
in his father, and look upon him as his best friend. 
In a first correction of the Instruction for 1718, the 
king had written, in order to define the kind of affec- 
tion he desired, the words ^'Fraternal love."^^ He con- 
sented to have his son stand in awe of his mother, but 
not of him : "Make him fear his mother but not me." 
And he was convinced that all was for the best, in 
the best of possible educations. In all good faith, he 
believed that a mind could be maneuvered like a 
regiment, and that a soul would yield itself to cultiva- 
tion at will, just as an estate is worked for its products. 

THE GERMS OF CONFLICT BETWEEN FATHER AND SOX. 

Those who had known Frederick William as a child, 
Mme. de Rocoulle, for instance, must have been sur- 
prised to find how slight was the resemblance between 
Fritz and his father. When Frederick William came 
into the world lie was very robust. His grandmother, 
the Electress of Hanover, Avho was in Berlin at the 



34 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

time of his birth, admired the strong structure of his 
limbs. From the age of four, he was a formidable 
youngster. One day, while they were dressing him, he 
tore a buckle from his shoe, and put it into his mouth. 
When they wished to take it away from him, he swal- 
lowed it. His mother uttered cries that would have 
''melted rocks"; his father, majestic as he was, came 
near losing his senses. The physicians, however, pre- 
scribed a purgative and the buckle is on exhibition in a 
glass case, at the Hohenzollern Museum, in Berlin. 
In growing up, he acquired a taste for malicious praiiks, 
some of which I have already related. He was ex- 
tremely brutal. They had to bring him back from his 
grandj^arents of Hanover, where he had been visiting, 
for while there he had unmercifully beaten his cousin, 
the future George II. of England.^ He detested ,this 
cousin all his life. Oii^ day, they had to tear him 
away by force from the Prince of Courlande, whom 
he held by the hair. He did not have one good quality, 
nor the least coquetry of a child who desired to please. 
He fled from ladies, blushed, when out of respect they 
kissed his hands, and, when he had to speak to them, 
he never said anything agreeable, to the great despair 
of Sophia Charlotte, who .had found that "affection 
refines the mind and polishes th^ manners." He was 
a'coarse little savage. ^* 

"Little Fritz," said his sister Wilhelmina, "had a 

very weak constitution. His taciturn humor and lack 

of animation gave just cause of fear for his life." He 

,had several diseases during his infancy; he became 

stronger as he grew up, but always looked very delicate, 



CHILDHOOD. 35 

with an air of sadness about him, thinking a long 
while before answering. He was moreover, an amiable 
child, earnestly beloved by the household, and, with 
the exception of some little temper, had an "angelic 
disposition." Wilhelmina tells us that he learned 
slowly, but that signified unquestionably that certain 
things were distasteful to him, or that he had the dis- 
tractions of a youthful mind that regarded other things 
through natural preference. Other witnesses eulogized- 
his good qualities, and the incredible facility he hgfd 
of learning everything he wished to learn. He adored 
his sister Wilhelmina, his elder by nearly three years^, 
whose precocity everybody praised, for she had all 
the manners of a full-grown young lady ; she was 
lively and sensible, and loved her brother. "My only 
diversion was to see my brother. No attachment ever 
equaled ours."^^ They were both pretty; Pesne has 
painted them together : Fritz (who was about five years 
old) is in a low-necked velvet dress, with the Grand 
Cordon and Star of the Black Eagle ; he wears a hat 
with a long plume. His right hand holds a drum- 
sti-ek, and is raised with a gesture which signifies : 
Forward! He looks at his sister" as though to urge her 
to advance. Wilhelmina wears over her dress of a 
Marchioness a la Watteau, a velvet mantle with a long 
train. She looks you \\\ the face; one hand gathers 
up a loose bunch of flowers in the" fold of her mantle ; 
the other, resting upon the drum, stays th^ hand of 
Fritz from beating it. She is truly the big sister who 
guides the little brother. From both heads fall blonde 
curls. Fritz has a firmer chin, but if their clothes were 



36 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

exchanged, it would be difficult to tell the boy from 
the girl. 

There was then in Fritz a delicacy, a fine distinction 
of nature, which his father did not foresee, and which 
he never saw, perhaps. However, the Crown Prince 
only gave at first, cause for contentment to the king. 
He played soldier very well. He was barely six years 
old when his father organized for him a "company of 
Crown Prince Cadets," com230sed of one hundred and 
thirty-one children, selected from several cadet schools. 
The effective force was increased little by little ; the 
company became the " Crown-Prince-Royal-Battalion of 
Cadets." This was a nursery of future heroes for the 
wars of the great reign ; they had sowed in it nothing 
but the best grain ; squires, sons ^of squires ; soldiers, 
sons of soldiers. These pigmies composed, in minia- 
ture, a model troop. They learned the art of renounc- 
ing all personal movement, to assimilate themselves 
into this toy machine accurately and neatly, and to 
make their little maneuvers in perfect unison. Fritz 
first drilled in the ranks, commanded by Instructor 
Reutzell, a big boy of seventeen. Afterward he himself 
commanded. He had the honor of being reviewed 
by Czar Peter and by his grandfather, the King of 
England, who admired him very much. In 1721 the 
king gave him for his birthday present a little arsenal, 
installed in one of the rooms of the palace at Berlin. 

" Dites que mon berceau f ut environne d' armes " 
(Say that my cradle was surrounded by arms), 

wrote Frederick later. The father, in fact, had placed 

them everywhere. 



CHILDHOOD. 37 

It seemed that Fritz had made an effort to be agree- 
able in everything to his father. We have the letters 
that he wrote then: For the first, which was in 1717, 
his hand was guided ; he wrote the second all alone, for 
which reason he begs the king to keep it as a souvenir. 

It is a pretty communication of a little officer. The 
prince submits "the list" of his company of cadets. 
He returns thanks for a new cadet who has been sent to 
him; he hopes that this recruit will soon grow up and 
take a place one day in the famous battalion, in which 
Frederick William admitted none but giants. He gives 
a report of his company, which had executed the ma- 
neuvers so well and "made such good shots that it 
was impossible to do better" ; for this success he gave 
them a tun of beer. That must have gone straight to 
the king's heart. 2*^ The "dear jjapa," who Avas a great 
hunter, was to learn also with joy-^ that his son had 
killed a hare and shot his first partridge. But the fol- V 
lowing must have given him more pleasure than all. 
In 1720 Fritz composed in French a little piece entitled: 
"The Way the Prince of a Great House Should Live. " -' . 

"He must be noble-hearted, belong to the Reformed- 
religion, fear God in a certain way, not like j^eople who 
do it for money, or for the world. He must love his 
father and mother ; he must be grateful. 

" He must love God with all his heart, for, when one 
loves Him, one does everything to please Him. . . . - 
He must not make long prayers, like the Pharisees, but 
{^in 2^etU) a little one. He must thank Jesus Christ for 
His kindness in crucifying Himself for us, poor sinners. 
He must never renounce the Reformed religion, and in his 



38 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

illnesses consider that God has sent them to us, to re- 
mind us that we are sinners; and we must not think, I am 
not sick, I can vanquish God, for it is necessary always to 
think, I am a sinner. He must not love a thing too much, 
he must be obliging, civil, speak with all men. When one 
knows how to do well and does not do so, this is a sin. 
He must act as it is in the Ten Commandments, not to 
steal, to keep one's self pure, and to think always, all 
that I do well comes from God. He must never think 
evil ; all evil that comes into the mind comes from the 
. devil. He must think of the passage of Scripture that 
says : * Be sober, be vigilant ; because your adversary 
the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom 
he may devour ; whom resists steadfast in the faith.' 
"Oct. 4, 1720. Fkiedrich." 

"Note well," said Kalkstein, concerning this compo- 
sition, of which he had made a copy from the original, 
".that H. R. H. the Crown Prince of Prussia, wrote 
this on the morning of the 4th of October, according to 
his own impulse and without having communicated this 
design to anyone whomsoever, at the age of eight years, 
eight months and eleven days."^^ He assures us that he 
had "neither added to nor taken out a single letter." 
However, he must have at least corrected the orthogra- 
phy, for the prince, a long time after this date, spelled 
in such a way that it was difficult, at fir>st reading, to 
comprehend his meaning. It is evident, besides, that 
the child only repeated his lessons of religious in- 
struction, and probably word for word. It is a curious 
thing, however, that the first writing of Frederick the 
Great should have been this : " The Way the Prince of 



CHILDHOOD. 39, 

a Great House Should Live." - "May God," said Kalk- 
stein, "confirm him in tliese pious sentiments, that are 
truly beyond his age." This also was the cherished wish 
of King Frederick \Yilliam. 

Meanwhile, during the daily lessons, in the tete-a-tetes 
with Duhan, little by little, without anyone perceiving 
it, a work was going on, entirely different from these 
exercises of the little soldier and young Christian. The 
education of the prince overstepped the limits the king 
prescribed. Duhan did not deliberately disobey the in- 
structions that he received ; but, in spite of himself, he 
amended, retrenched, and added. He corrected the let- 
ter by the spirit. The king, as soon as he perceived 
this, tried to bring Duhan back to the letter. He had 
ordered that Fritz should learn history from the Thedtrum 
JEiirojnBum, a collection of volumes in folio, with maps, 
plans, illustrations, where the facts were enumerated 
year by year, from 1617. This was a repertory enor- 
mous and indigestible. Duhan arranged it so that the 
prince should not lose himself in it. "I purpose," said 
he in a note to the king, "to spare His Royal Highness 
the trouble of reading this long work, by gathering up 
for him the most remarkable events, according to the 
exact order of the book." The king wrote on the margin, 
"^4// the events.'''' Duhan added that he would put the 
prince " in a way to reason upon the events every time 
the king would notify him to do so. However, His 
Highness had no need of learning anything by heart, 
unless it was the names of the most celebrated persons, 
the principal battles, sieges and summaries of the 
treaties of peace." In a marginal note the king re- 



40 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

plied: "He must learn hy heart, for that will form 
his memory." ^^ 

Propositions and responses show the conflict of the 
two minds ; the king did not care about general consid- 
erations ; the philosophy of history was not to his taste. 
He desired facts, facts, and facts only. But, if the 
preceptor had obeyed the king, the prince would have 
had to learn two or three volumes in folio eadh year. 
Duhan certainly did not put him to this torture. 

The preceptor ended his note by saying that it would 
be well to repeat from time to time an outline of the 
history of Brandenburg. "Good," wrote the king;; 
"but the history of the Greeks and Romans must be 
abolished ; they serve no purpose. " Here it was in vain 
for the master to desire not to disobey the king ; the 
sacrifice of antiquity was beyond his strength. To-day, 
we Avho have lived a century longer, a century sur- 
charged with events, ideas and sentiments, more potent 
than all, a century which has regenerated the opinions 
of man upon himself and upon all_ matter ; we who feel 
clearly that one destiny ends and another begins, that 
the present gives birth to the future, have no longer the 
leisure to look into the past. Antiquity will keep the 
graces of its arts and the charm of its eternal and simple 
wisdom some time yet for the initiated, then it will 
vanish into oblivion. A hundred years ago it was the 
light of the world. All cultivated men fed their intellect 
upon it. It was there they found the perfection of form 
and thought, the tyj^es of virtue and vice, the expressions 
of joy and sorrow; the morale of the " honest man," as 
they said, was a reminiscence ; a maxim, a citation. 



CHILDHOOD. 41 

The envious was called Zoilus ; the ugly, Thersites ; the 
triumphant hero, Achilles ; the unsuccessful hero, Hec- 
tor. Marathon and Zama were the combats of yesterday; 
Pythagoras, Solon, Numa, inimitable models of law- 
makers. Classical Mythology was reduced to one of a 
thousand human Avays of expressing the thoughts and 
dreams of men ; not the best, nor yet the most pro- 
found. Scholars as well as poets reveled in it, familiar 
with all its ideality and its pretty .detours. 

Not to make his prince acquainted with thie Greeks 
and Romans was, of course, impossible to Duhan, utterly 
impossible. The classics, consequently, often became 
the topic of conversation between tutor and pupil. Du- 
han's most plausible pretext was, perhaps, the reading of 
Telemachus. ^"^ Frederick William had no objection to 
this. When a child, he had read this book with his 
mother, who explained it to him. Sophia Charlotte 
thought to find in the study of this calm work, so deeply 
imprinted with Hellenic serenity, a means of polish- 
ing her savage boy. She would walk with her son, 
in the park at Chariot tenburg, Telemachus in hand ; 
read, explain, and question. She even wrote out her 
questions and Frederick William's answers. He spoke 
like a sage of Sesostris, of Pygmalion, the good Min- 
ister Narbas, the bad Minister Metophis, and expressed 
his admiration for Telemachus' strenfyth in fleeingr from 
the beautiful Eucharis. This edifying dialogue between 
mother and son prefaced the edition of Fenelon that 
Duhan and Frederick read together. Now Telemachus 
is a hero, exalted to virtue and glory, according to 
the maxims of ancient wisdom. Tins readinoj must 



42 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

have transported the imagination of Fritz far from 
the Spree and Havel, his company of cadets, giant 
recruits, and the history of Brandenburg, Brunswick 
and Hesse. 

. It is very difficult to study antiquity without know- 
ing tjae ancient languages. Duhan tried, they say, 
to scheme. A royal prince, heir to an electorate, must 
read the Golden Bull, which was one of the consti- 
tutions of the Holy Roman Empire of the Germanic 
nation. It showed the privileges of the Seignior Elec- 
tors ; the places assigned to them in the imperial 
cortege; in the imperial sittings; in the festive hall, 
where the Emjjeror dined, crown on head; and, upon 
this basis of ceremonies, was painted in relief the 
anarchy of old Germany. Duhan contrived to have 
this venerable document explained to the prince. He 
imposed this duty upon an assistant teacher, but as 
ill luck would have it, the king entered his son's apart- 
ments, during the course of one of the lessons : "What 
are you doing, there, you rascal ? " he demanded of 
the teacher. ' "Your Majesty," responded the poor 
man, "I am explaining to his Highness the Golden 
Bull." "Just wait," replied Frederick William, "I 
will Golden Bull you," and he raised his cane. Thus*^ 
ended the instruction in Latin. Fritz however secretly 
learned a few of the elementary principles, which enabled 
him later to make some very queer citations, it is 
true; for, by the side of: temporal mores! and 
Dom^iniis vobiscum, which are correct, we find, in his 
collection of aphorisms, a Beatus pauperes spiritus^ 
a Compille intrare^ a De f/ustibus non est disputanclus, 



CHILDHOOD. 43 

which proves, according to Frederick William, that 
in order to learn how to reign and conquer, Latin is 
not necessary. 

Frederick read in translations the masterpieces of 
classic antiquity, for he was a great reader. He said 
later that, his sister Wilhelmina having made him 
*' ashamed to neglect his talents, he set himself to 
reading." He commenced with romances : "I obtained 
Pierre cle Province (this was a Provencal romance trans- 
lated into French). They would not have consented' 
for me to read it; I hid the book, and, when my pre- 
ceptor, General Fink, and my valet slept, I went into 
another room, where I found a lamp in the chimney. 
I crouched down, and read. "^^ Behold a pretty scene of 
a child reader, wherein is revealed one of Frederick's 
ruling passions which gave him so much pleasure, and 
even whiled away his greatest hours of tribulation. 
But in this way the child learned to taste forbidden 
fruit. At the hour when he was reading, the order 
was to sleep. Th^ king would not have permitted this 
infraction of discipline, no matter if the secret read- 
ing had been that of the Theatrum EurojKemn. 

He would have forbidden many othei' things besides, 
if he had known of them. He did not see expanding 
in his son's niind an ideal totally different from the 
"practical" that he intended to impose, neither the 
growing pleasure of secret disobedience, contradiction 
and opposition. One fine day however, all kinds of 
vague indications of a manner of living, displeasing 
to him, will open up before his eyes. He will ask 
himself, "What is going on in this little buain?" 



44 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

Accordingly as he divines what is "going on," he 
will become disturbed, enraged; — in the end, he will 
re j dice. 

Before relating the quarrel between father and son, 
we must become well acquainted with the personality 
of Frederick William, of which we have just caught 
a glimpse. Let us see him in the State, in his family, 
and in the familiarity of daily intercourse. In this 
wise, we shall begin to discover the cause and character 
of a conflict, where the Crown Prince, vanquished by 
his father, learned that he was born, not for letters, 
but for action and command. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE FATHER OF FREDERICK THE GREAT THE IDEAS 

AXD MODES OF GOVERXMEXT OF FREDERICK AVILLIAM. 

Tj^REDERICK WILLIAM had but few ideas, and 
^ so simple were they that nothing more couki 
be added; to wit : "A kiwg needs to be strong; in 
order to be strong, he must have a good army ; in order 
to maintain a good army, he must pay it ; in order to 
pay it,,he must raise the money." Outside of this he had 
a unique and original conception of his functions ; he 
considered the King of Prussia an ideal and perpetual 
being, of whom he, Frederick William, was but the 
servant: "I am," said he, "the General-in-Chief and 
the Minister of Finance of the King of Prussia." This 
mystic conception of his office had this very practical 
result ; viz. : he did not believe himself authorized to 
enjoy royalty ; he administered it in his master's behalf. . 
All his life he worked under the eye of this master, 
whom he knew to be redoubtable. 

Prussia was not a nation. It was a union of territo- 
ries, separated from one another, spreading from the 
Rhine to the Vistula, from the Baltic toward the 
mountains of Bohemia, having neither the same memo- 
rials nor the same customs, united by the result of a few 
marriages and the fortuity of a few deaths. It is true 
that this union had been in existence and these countries 

45 



46 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

under a common ruler for a century. The predecessors 
of Frederick William had destroyed provincial liberties 
in the Rhine countries, as well as in Brandenburg and 
Prussia. There' remained very little for him to do in 
'order to establish his sovereignty (the word is his) "like 
a rock 6f bronze, — wie einen Hocher von JBronce.'''' But 
he ruled over a species'of inert matter. His subjects 
had no zeal for any public undertaking, of which they 
had not even a conception ; that rested in the king alone. 
The future of Prussia was in the mind and will of the 
Sovereign. 

Frederick William made this mind and this will felt 
everywhere. It is always in action, on the scene, to the 
front. It is not an institution that operates ; it is a 
person in flesh and blood, fashioned in a certain mold, 
whose voice we hear and whose hand we feel, a hand 
armed with the sword of justice on great occasions, and 
a stick on minor ones. This character, so "personnel," 
lives not in the abstract. For him, the ministry, the 
administration, the army, are definite individuals, minis- 
ters, counselors, officers, that go by such and such 
names, and must do such and ^uch things. The royal 
domain is composed of estates of such a quality or of 
such a defect, situated in such a place, for which the 
farmer. Jack or Peter, pays or does not pay his rent. 
Without interposition of general ideas, of acquired cus- 
toms, of wheel-work that turns for the pleasure of turn- 
ing, of means to produce ends ; without restraint of 
decorum^ of majesty, of velvet, of silk gloves that pre- 
vent the hand from touching the pie, Frederick William 
attacks the j^ractical and manipulates the concrete. 



THE FATHER. 47 

His father left him an army of some thirty odd 
thousand men. It was a suitable number, rather large 
even, for a kingdom that had only two million subjects. 
He wished to have at least eighty thousand soldiers. 
His father, his grandfather, all his predecessors had 
received foreign subsidies ; they had taken money ol 
all effigies, louis, sterliiigs, and florins : he, however, 
made it a point of honor to pay his expenses, only 
in money duly and rightfully gained by him. So it 
became necessary to iniprove the kingdom in such 
a way that it would bring forth more each year. To 
produce "a surplus," as he said again and again, — ein 
Plus machen., everything depends upon that: "Whoever 
has the disposal of ready cash commands both the 
civil and military service, and by augmentation gains 
the respect and the admiration of the world." 

His whole principle of government, ^^ his whole manner 
of living is shown in a decree, which should be 
placed among the great documents of history, for 
it has produced results, or rather, a single result — the 
power of Prussia. He composed this decree about 
the last of December, 1722, after a retreat to a hunt- 
ing lodge. For a long time the king was discontented 
with the general system of administration. The State 
had, at that time, her chief revenues from two different 
sources: First, revenues domanial, which comprised 
tillable lands belonging to the crown, products of the 
forests, mines, salt-works, posts, customs, rights of 
transit and stamp-duty ; second, war revenues, of which 
the principal ones were the contribution, direct impost 
levied upon the low countries, and the excise, indirect 



4:8 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

impost, collected in the cities. The war revenues were 
controlled in the provinces by -assemblies called War 
Commissariats, which reported to the General Com- 
missariat of War ; and it reported to the Chamber of 
Administration which was controlled by the General 
Directory of Finances. These two Administrations 
had a hundred occasions of contradicting each other, 
and they never allowed a single one to pass. They 
were constantly at law ; a press of affairs was sus- 
pended, and the king, in the confusion of these chican- 
eries, could not find out the exact state of his finances, 
by which he wished to regulate the expense of his 
army. He resolved to unite these opposing bodies, 
and to teach them, in clear terms, their duty. 

For several days, he reflected, in his retreat at 
Schonebeck : then, taking up a pen, he wrote a first 
plan of instruction. He applied himself vigorously, 
taking a pride in doing it so well, that no one could 
counsel him to add the least thing. He then set 
out for Potsdam, where he had one of his secretaries, 
Thulemeier, called, and ordered him to make a copy 
of his manuscript: " Come to-morrow," said he, "with 
some strong paper, and some black cord mixed with 
silver. We will have two days work on it." But 
the two days did not suffice ; the king dictated, then 
had that read to him, corrected it, then had it read 
again and corrected. At last the 19 th of January, 
172.3, the members of the General Commissariat of 
War and those of the General Directory of Finance 
were called to the palace. 

Not one of them knew for what purpose. Hgen, a 



THE FATHER. 49 

minister, began by reading a royal mandate, in which 
they were rebuked for their follies and errors: "The 
two assemblies know how to do nothing but oppose each 
other, as if the Commissariat General and Chamber of 
Administration do not likewise belong to the King of 
Prussia. The Commissariat has lawyers paid from my 
purse, to plead against the Finance, consequently against 
me. The Finance, to defend itself, has lawyers also 
paid from my purse. It is time to put an end to this 
work of confusion." Consequently, the members of 
the two bodies were informed that they were united into 
a single body, "the General Superior Directory of Fi- 
nance, War and Administration, — General-oher-Finanz- 
Kriegs-iuid-Dominien-Directoriuyn.'''' They were then 
led into a hall prepared for them ; Ilgen indicated to 
each one his place, and, standing before the portrait 
of His Majesty, read the Instruction. After that he 
conducted them to the king, who received their oath " to 
work, as much as it was humanly possible, in the service 
and for the welfare of His Royal Majesty, particularly 
in the augmentation and improvement of all kinds of 
revenues, and at the same time for the preservation of 
the subjects, in the low countries as well as in the cities, 
and, per contra, to avoid and foresee all that might 
be injurious to his said Majesty and to the Royal House, 
to the country and the faithful subjects." ^^ 

Here are the two principles : Increase of revenue, and 
preservation of subjects. The king insists upon this in 
the Instruction. "Every one knows the formidable con- 
sequences of badly taken measures and too heavy taxes, 
which enervate the people and render them incapable of 



50 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

furnishing integrally to the sovereign the customary 
prestations." It is necessary, then, to watch over the 
preservation and prosperity of the cities, villages, and 
the low countries, and to impose no tax too heavy for 
the people to bear. Third principle : The public taxa- 
tion shall be equally distributed among all ; the contri- 
bution shall be taxed * ' after the cadastre of which they 
shall always keep themselves thoroughly informed." 
From the excise no one shall be exempt: "We will pay 
it, we and our Royal House. All conveyances from ours 
to the lowliest peasant shall be taxed ; " for the burdens 
of State "must fall equally upon all shoulders." 

These are about the only general ideas to be found in 
this document. They are worth the trouble of repeti- 
tion, for they express a whole philosophy of State. It 
was not a fiscal ordinance that Frederick William wrote 
in his hunting lodge ; it was a chart, a great chart of a 
monarchy, of a particular kind in which the monarch is 
coalescent with State, like the God of Spinoza with na- 
ture. Understand well that these are not empty formu- 
las that Frederick William has written ; they are truths. 
He had a horror of vain declarations and principles 
"that are lost in wind and blue vapor." 

With great conciseness he described the new organi- 
zation. The Directory was divided into Departments, 
each one of which was presided over by a minister. The 
Departments had no special function to perform ; the 
monarchical territories were distributed among them ; 
the affairs of these territories, of whatever nature they 
might be, were referred to them. The king wished that 
the counselors should understand all about these affairs. 



THE FATHER. 51 

'' Some will say : 'We are only competent for affairs of 
commerce and manufacture, and know nothing of agri- 
cultural economy.' Others will say: ' We comprehend 
agricultural economy, and know nothing about the 
rest.' . . . To these we respond : 'We have chosen men 
intelligent enough to speedily inform themselves upon all 
these subjects. They have but to work zealously to 
direct their attention to all the affairs, to gain informa- 
tion and enlightenment; one will be a school for the 
other. A clever, zealous man, who, after God, esteems 
nothing more than the favor of his king, whom he serves 
through love and honor, not for recompense, and who 
has a horror of all intrigue, will soon render himself 
skillful enough to serve us in all things. Nevertheless, 
we are going to put you to the test. We will take ad- 
vantage of this opportunity to send a counselor, compe- 
tent in agricultural matters, to establish manufactures 
and control the excise ; if he does not administer these 
affairs with address it will fare badly with him.' "... 
The work of the Directory, the apportionment of 
the duties, the methods of decision were regulated 
with the greatest care ; the resi3onsibilities were pointed 
out in strong terms. The king stated who should be 
responsible, according to the case in question, and, 
as he called the ministers and counselors by name, 
these Instructions had the character of a very curt 
menace: "For example, if there is any negligence 
in the first Department, Von Herold, Manitius and 
Von Thiele will be held responsible. As 'a word 
to the wise is sufficient' there is no reason to believe 
that they will act differently." 



52 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

The first duty was promptness. All miivisters and 
counselors, without a written permission from the king, 
who arrived an hour late, should forfeit a hundred ducats ; 
if they missed an entire sitting they forfeited six months' 
salary ; in case of a second offense, they were to be dis- 
missed cum infamia, for, "if we pay our counselors, 
they must work." The sittings were to convene at 8 
o'clock in winter, at 7 in summer, and continue 
until the order for the day was exhausted. If the 
business was not finished by 2 o'clock, half of the 
members should dine, while the other half continued to 
work ; those who had dined should return to their places 
immediately and the others should replace them at table ; 
*'for it is necessary that our service shall be done 
with zeal and fidelity." Every day at 11 o'clock, the 
steward must ask the usher of the Directory if the 
members were going to dine. ''At 2 o'clock, he shall 
serve a good soup, a good dish of fish, a good roast 
of beef, mutton or veal, and a quart bottle of good 
Rhine wine, to each person. The bill of fare shall 
not always be the same. It must be varied, having 
a care, that each time there shall be four good dishes 
as well prepared as those of His Majesty. For serving 
this, there shall be but one lackey, for it is not neces- 
sary to have the room filled with lackeys. Each 
guest shall immediately receive four plates and a glass ; 
he must put the soiled plates in a basket placed near 
him." ^' 

Behold these practical sentiments ! These are real 
people in flesh and blood, like the king, who are there 
under his surveillance, and who are going to work at 
once without any preamble or ceremony. 



THE FATHER. 53 

Nothing simpler, moreover, than the work prescribed 
for them to do : increase the power of the production of 
the kingdom, so as to increase the revenues of the king. 
The country does not yield all that it can. All the 
losses incurred during the Thirty Years' War have 
not yet been repaired. The king found, in the old 
registers which he consulted, the names of villages that 
had entirely disappeared. Since then, war again, arid 
other scourges had made other depredations. During 
the last years of the preceding reign a pestilence had car- 
ried off a third of the inhabitants of Prussia, and three- 
fourths of the population of Lithuania. These vacan- 
cies — these Waste Stellen, the sight of which made Fred- 
erick William ill — must be filled. They must build up 
the villages of the 17th century and repeople the de- 
serted cantons. The peace that the kingdom was then 
enjoying insured a superaddition of births ; but this 
natural repeopling was slow, and Frederick William was 
very impatient. They must, then, make subjects of 
foreigners ; his Prussia was the asylum for all who fled 
from religious persecution, or who came to seek their 
fortunes through labor. He did not content himself 
with merely receiving them ; he summoned, cared for 
and humored them. To put some one where there never 
had been any one before, was to create ; the king thus 
applied himself to ameliorate. He did not refuse his 
farmers any "repairs"; if it was necessary to build, he 
built; to make a clearing, he made a clearing ; to drain 
a marsh, he did that. This work of increasing the value 
of his kingdom, ui)on which he expended an incredible 
amount of energy, he recommended to the Directory, but 



54 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

he took the precaution not to be deceived. He could 
not bear the idea that a thaler, a pfennig even, should 
be stolen from him or misused. 

He exacted absolute regularity in the accounts, for 
money escaped through the slightest disorder. Neither 
did he wish that the farmers to whom a new building 
was granted should build it themselves, then retain out 
of the rent of the lands the sum expended. " For in- 
stance," said he — he loved to exemplify and give pre- 
cision to his thought by examples — "Farmer Llirsten, 
of K5penick, owes a rent of 500 thalers. They ask 
him why he does not pay it. He answers that his ex- 
pense for building counterbalances it, and that the 
Chamber of Administration is indebted to him. An- 
swers like this arrive from all the countries. This must 
be changed ; the farmers must not be occupied in any- 
thing but cultivating the soil. They will pay their 
quarter's rent without deducting a farthing, for we 
will not receive accounts and paper for money. Each 
Chamber of Administration shall have a master architect, 
who shall have charge of constructions, and a superin- 
tendent of the building, who shall pay the workmen. 
The master shall watch over the superintendent ; one of 
the counselors of the Chamber will keep an eye on both 
of these ; the whole Chamber shall look after all three. 
If, notwithstanding these precautions, they secretly 
blow in the same horn, then they are a lot of rascals." 

The founding of the colonies cost very dear ; the 
king who "swallowed" this expense, as he said, "spoon- 
ful by spoonful," felt the bitterness of it, but he 
realized its necessity. So he resolved to continue 



THE FATHER. 55 

this colonization, but lie varied it from year to year. 
There was in the arrangement of it something unique 
and extraordinary. The king did not like these '^ Flic 
Flac expenses." He wished to regulate them even 
to the minutest detail. He set aside a certain sum, 
that must not be exceeded by a farthing. Besides, 
he did not approve of making any but good invest- 
ments ; the propositions for opening of credits should 
be very cautiously dealt with: "Not to build farms 
or villages, unless 10 per cent, on the capital employed, 
could be realized." 

Frederick William put his old and new subjects in 
a condition to work : this was his duty. Make the 
present subjects do theirs, by working well, that is 
to say, in obtaining from the ground all that it can 
produce by proper cultivation, without uselessly spend- 
ing a farthing. "They have but to take example 
from the king" said he: "Upon our little estate of 
Schenken, which we cultivate ourselves, and where we 
have learned things by experience, not from books." 

Thus the population of the kingdom will increase 
from day to day ; agricultural implements will be 
improved ; new territories will be brought under culti- 
vation; the peasant subjects of the King of Prussia 
will produce more each year. Then, they will pay 
the farm rents and the contributions. The citizens, 
as well, must pay their excise, and, in order to do that, 
industry must be promoted in the cities, like agricul- 
ture in the country. Here again, fill up the WiHte 
Stellen, which are numerous, make and remake, con- 
struct and reconstruct. "My cities of Prussia are 



66 FREDEKICK THE GREAT. 

in a bad state": the General Directory must neglect 
nothing to remedy this evil. There are not enough 
cities in Lithuania : the General Directory must build 
some. This must be taken hold of "earnestly and 
vigorously, — mit JErnst unci Vigueur, — in such a 
way that our desire may be gratified as soon as possi- 
ble. They know of what great importance the 
establishment of manufactures is to us and to our 
country. They must apply themselves with ex- 
treme zeal in promoting all kinds of industries, wool, 
leather, iron, wood, that do not exist in our country, 
and establish as many of them as possible." Foreign 
workmen must be imported. The king indicates to 
them where will be found woolen drapers and stock- 
ing manufacturers. If they have need of a master- 
draper, let them seek one at Gorlitz, at Lissa or in 
Holland. They must promise and give him a situation ; 
they must marry him to "a girl of our country"; they 
must advance the wool to him: "And this is the way 
the master-draper will earn his bread, found a family, 
and become independent." Nothing easier: "You can- 
not make me believe that it will be much trouble to 
engage such people and attract them to our country." 
The industrial production would then increase like the 
agricultural ; but the sale and consumption of the 
products should be assured. Here, the rule was very 
simple: "Not to buy of foreign countries, or buy as 
little as possible ; to sell them as much as possible. As 
to the imports of the kingdom, absolute prohibition 
or diminution by heavy duties ; as to the exports 
a slight tax, which will not prevent exportation. Only 



THE FATHER. 57 

there are exceptions to tliis rule. The ideal of tlie 
King of Prussia was that Prussia should be self-su}»- 
porting, as if she were alone in the world. He estab- 
lished between his- cities and countries an excharige 
of relations and services. He bound together agricul- 
ture and commerce, so that they complimented each 
other. For example, one of the great agricultural pro- 
ducts was wool. The peasants wished to export it ; 
but then, it would be necessary for the drapers, \^ho 
would not be able to find enough wool in the country, 
to buy it outside, and behold the Prussian money going 
out of the country. The king then forbade the ex.-' 
portation of wool. The consequence was that all the 
wool had to be consumed in the country ; otherwise, 
"our provincial Chambers will not fail to say that 
our farmers will not be able to dispose of their wool, 
that it will no longer be worth anything, and so 
forth . . . " The king also prescribed to the Cham- 
bers of Administration and the Commissariats of War 
an exact estimate, on the one hand, of ' the quantity 
and quality of the wool produced in each province ; 
on the other, of the manufactories that worked the 
wool. "The General Directory," said he, "shall 
compare the total of the wool manufactured Avith the 
total of the wool produced. Let us suppose the first 
total to be inferior to the second, and that 2,000 pounds 
of the wool of first quality and 1,000 of medium quality 
will not find buyers. The General Directory shall 
establish in a city nine drapers, each of which will 
use 300 pounds of good wool, and employ one hundred 
operatives in the stocking manufactories, each of which 



58 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

will work up at least 10 pounds of medium wool. The 
evil is remedied. All this will be profit to the king- 
dom, for the Prussian peasant will sell his wool ; Prus- 
sia will manufacture cloth and stockings in sufficient 
quantities for the consumption of the country and 
for exportation." The king was so sure of being in 
the right, that to prohibit the exportation of wool, 
he ordered as the penalty "strangulation." 

Since every one else was attending to his own business, 
the king would attend to his also. He admitted no tardi- 
ness in the payment of his revenues. For the excise, 
which was an indirect impost, there was no difficulty, 
but the rural affairs had to await the contributions 
and the farm rents. The king spoke clearly on this 
subject: "The payment must be, made punctually at 
a fixed time, without even the smallest deduction, 
and we admit of no excuse, from any one whomsoever." 
He knew all the tricks of the peasants. They would 
not fail to say that the commodities were sold too low. 
"Reply to them, that they cannot have only dear 
commodities. If it were thus, we would have the 
rentals too low. The lease has been calculated on a 
mean average, so that a good year will cover the losses 
of a bad year. We have not promised our farmers 
that they would have none but profitable years. They 
have signed the lease without condition, — ohne zu 
conditiomiiren. The farm rents have been justly im- 
posed so that the proprietor may draw profit from 
his lands, and receive -the rental, — the ready money, — 
without entering into complicated accounts. Then, 
away with all weakness, no ' humanitarianism.' If 



THE FATHER. 59 

the money is delayed, if it is 'tied up' somewhere, 
employ means of untying it. If these methods do not 
appear as clear as the sun in the sky, send with- 
out losing a moment's time to the place where this 
default and confusion is rife, and there apply the 
remedy." 

The General Directory shall exercise its authority over 
all the Administration of the monarchy. The Commis- 
sariats of War and the Chamber of Administration of 
the provinces emanate from it. When there are vacan- 
cies the Directory shall fill them again. It shall place 
in the Commissariats worthy, diligent men, provided 
with a healthy, natural understanding, versed in manu- 
facture, excise and all affairs pertaining to the Commis- 
sariats ; and in the Chamber of Administration strong, 
healthy, vigilant men, who are experienced in farming, 
whether as overseers of estates or as practical farmers, 
and proficient in bookkeeping. The king desires the 
members of the Directory to have the highest attri- 
butes. The ministers, after making diligent search, 
shall propose the most competent persons, faithful and 
honest, whether Lutherans or Calvinists, such as com- 
prehend practical economy and are acquainted w4th com- 
merce and manufacture, capable of Avriting well, that is 
to say, of stating a subject properly, having "clear 
heads." 

Frederick William made of this a kind of portrait of 
the Prussian bureaucracy which he created — a kind of 
noblesse civile, drilled to service, vigorously disciplined, 
exact, hardworking, the mainspring of a State where 
the subjects wdio had lost the last vestiges of feudal 



60 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

liberty, obeyed the royal order : JSficht raisonniren, — 
here, no reasoning. The time will come when this 
body will take the form of a caste ; the ' ' clear heads " 
will be heard no more ; exactitude will become a mania ; 
zeal, pedantry, and all that fine organization will be 
nothing but a machine. Then it will be seen that a 
nation cannot live in the air of a bureau, that it is dead, 
in fact, and the machine turns in a vacuum. But the 
danger of the morrow was, the day before, a necessary 
state of existence. 

The Prussian bureaucracy was the first organ of the 
nation of Prussia. The king, after having enumerated 
the virtues that he exacted from his functionaries, adds: 
"And, above all, they must be our born subjects." He 
reserves to himself the right of calling one or two for- 
eigners into the Chambers and Commissariats, but they 
must be very proficient in order to counteract the defect 
of not being born subjects of the king ; for he wishes to 
create the idea that a chance visitor is not able to com- 
prehend the sentiment of a country. This country will 
be no longer a Brandenburg for the Brandenburgers, a 
Pomerania for the Pomeranians, or a Prussia for the 
Prussians ; it will be, without distinction of territories, 
the whole extent of his domination. He orders recruit- 
ing the Chambers and Commissariats of one province 
with men born in another. For example, if there are 
vacancies in Prussia, men must be called from Cleves, 
Brandenburg or Pomerania, not from Prussia. And 
the same with the other countries ; the king will send 
the people of his provinces away from their homes ; he 
will remove the barriers of these small countries, so as 



THE FATHER. 61 

to blend them into the one great country. A i^eculiar 
country, which is neither the product of nature nor of 
history, the true definition of it being : The Prussian 
country; that is, the service of the King of Prussia. 

Between the Directory and the Chambers and Com- 
missariats the intercourse shall be regular and frequent. 
A report from the provinces will arrive each week. In 
order that these reports may be exact and circumstan- 
tial, the Presidents of the Chambers must inspect the 
estates, villages and farms with the greatest care ; the 
Presidents of the Commissariats must visit the cities 
under their jurisdiction, and keep themselves Informed of 
the commerce and the manufactures, the citizens and 
the residents, that they may know the cities of their de- 
partment "as well as a captain of our army knows his 
company, when he understands all of the innate qualities 
as well as exterior characteristics of his soldiers." An 
abridgement of these reports was transmitted to the 
king, who, in this way, knew regularly all that trans- 
pired in his kingdom, and whether or not each one was 
doing " his duty.' 

THE GOVERXMENT OF THE KING. 

The king, in order to give the Directory "more lus- 
tre and authority, in order to show the particular atten- 
tion that he proposes to pay constantly and indefatigably 
to the affairs appealable to the Directory, and as its ex- 
treme importance demands," reserved for himself the 
presidency. He was not a man to give an order once, so 
as to remain ever after inactive. Every evening the Di- 
rectory sent him a proces verbal of the sitting for the 



62 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

day, which he read the following morning. He did not 
admit of any decision to be taken, involving some inno- 
vation, without his approval. This great council had 
but little consultative voice. Not one expense for im- 
provement was authorized except by the king himself ; 
no lease was confirmed until after it had received his 
signature. The plan was presented to him with a brief 
but clear note, Avhich permitted him "to see the nature 
of the thing immediately." The authority that he 
gave to the Directory to address questions to him 
"every time they may deem it necessary, notably, in all 
extraordinary cases," comprised an order to refer every- 
thing to him, of whatever import. This is certainly 
the way that he wished it to be understood. "The 
questions," said he, "must be brief and forcible — (m 
vienig Worten iiiid nerveus). . . ." To each one 
should be appended the advice of the General Directory. 
For example : There is a horse to be sold for a hundred 
thalers. "We think that Y. M. ,,will do well to buy it, 
but only for eighty thalers ; otherwise Y. M. would 
lose for such a reason." 

The example proves that the king wished to be in- 
structed in the minutest detail. He received questions 
by the thousands and thousands, to which he responded 
in short marginal notes. We can scarcely understand 
why he was not drowned in this inundation of diverse 
minutice for the most part unimportant, and how he 
was able to give so concisely and very often with 
J spirit a like number of instructions. It was because 
he loved to command. Frederick, his father, delighted 
at all times and in all jjlaces to display the majesty 



THE FATHER. 63 

of the King of Prussia; Frederick William, to make 
this majesty felt. "You must each time," said he 
to the Directory, "and for each affair, add your ad- 
vice with the reasons upon which you establish it, 
but we will remain the Seignior and King and will 
do as we will. Wtr hleihen doch der Ilerr iind Konig 
iind thiol was vyir loollen.'''^ A few lines farther on, 
after having declared that he intended always to know 
the truth, that he wished no flattery of any kind, he 
repeats the same words, "We are the Seignior and 
King, and do as we will." 

The mind of a king who thus comprehends and prac- 
tices his duties has not a moment of repose. There was 
in Frederick William's dominions, as in all the States of 
Europe, administrative machinery of diiferent dates, 
mixed together, which disappeared after the reorgan- 
ization of the Chambers and Commissariats. The con- 
flict of privileges that the king suppressed in finance, 
continued between the administrative and judicial 
authorities. There were also habits formed, resistance 
of routine ; no rebellion, but inertia, unwillingness, 
and, in all grades of society, from the noble to the peas- 
ant, the murmur of a people from whom an effort was 
demanded. Frederick William knew well that he was 
not fully obeyed except when he was there in ijropria 
persona. He could not be, and was truly, never at rest. 
He would have liked to see all the world at work : farm- 
ers on their farms, workmen at their trade, counselors in 
council. He recommended to the Directory to watch 
over the Chambers and Commissariats, to inspect them 
and not to rely on their word. He enjoined it to em- 



64 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

ploy spies. Each of the counselors must have one, 
which he must choose from among all kinds of people : 
farmers, tradesmen, and peasants. He will obtain, in 
this way, false as well as true information ; with good 
judgment, he will discern the true from the false. This 
espionage will enlighten the Directory, even upon the 
minutisshna. The king took the trouble to give a model 
of these secret reports : "For examj^le, in Prussia, there 
have been good winters and hard winters. The com- 
modities arrive in the cities. The wood for building is 
carted. The building goes on. There are indications 
of a good crop. Commerce, navigation and manufact- 
ures begin to prosper. . . . Such or such a village 
is burned. The nobility conspire secretly against a 
certain impost. A certain regiment buys its provisions 
from a foreign country. The Chamber of Administra- 
tions will turn over its exact amount of rentals or not. 
There may be good reasons or not for the delay. This 
must be corrected. There haA^e been twenty houses 

built in the city " 

Frederick William would never have finished if he 
had enumerated all the objects of his curiosity and 
anxiety : he shows in the ordinance that he had his 
head full of doubt at all times upon the most diverse 
matters. — The Directory proposes to him an augmenta- 
tion of such and such a revenue. But would there not 
be an equal or greater loss in such and such another 
revenue? Then what they projDOse to him is not an 
amelioration, it is wind : Keine Besse7'img, ergo, 
Wind. — Do not the Chambers of Administration and 
the Commissariats of War continue to quarrel among 



THE FATHER. 65 

themselves on the subject of the distribution of such and 
such funds or imposts? "They must find another way 
to amuse themselves ; then the poor devils of lawyers 
and jurists will become as useless as a fifth wheel to a 
coach." — Do the farmers fertilize well their lands? 
They are capable of impoverishing them. They must 
be prevented from selling their straw. — Certain officers, 
for example, of the hunt are thieves, but still they do 
not take advantage of everything that their right of 
office permits. The whole thing must be changed. — 
Are there not too many officers? Could not several 
duties be included in one? Let us see then if a certain 
number of officials cannot be cut off — (^retrangirt). — 
Why is beer not as good elsewhere as at Potsdam? — 
To have wool, we must have sheep ; now, in Prussia, 
there are nearly as many wolves as sheep. Quick, 
an order for hunting wolves. — How is it that the impost 
on salt is less this year than the preceding in the Hal- 
berstadt? The number of inhabitants has not dimin- 
ished. They have eaten as much salt as last year. 
There is some fraud, some leakage. You must then 
give warning to the principal manufacturer of salt to 
manage otherwise than the way he has been doing up 
to this time. Perhaps also the subjects buy their salt 
in Hanover or Poland. All of these importers of salt 
must be hung, etc., etc. 

Let us admit an impossible thing, that all the world, 
without exception, does its duty. Country and town 
are well populated ; the former furnishing food and ma- 
terial for industry, the latter working u]) this material 
in such a manner that not a particle of it is lost. Prus- 



66 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

sia is fed, clotlied, supplied with implements, armed. 
Not only is she sufficient unto herself, but "she pro- 
duces a surplus — ein I^lus,''^ which is sold to foreign 
countries. Will the king remain inactive ? He cannot, 
for the least accident will put this machine out of order, 
every movement of which is calculated with mathemat- 
ical accuracy. For example, the budget of receipts and 
expenses is made out for each provincial fund. One 
foresees that such a regiment will consume, per head, so 
much, including man and beast, and that the excise will 
deduct beforehand such a sum for this consumption ; 
but war breaks out, or perhaps the regiment is called' to 
Potsdam or elsewhere to maneuver or to go into camp. 
The receipt of the excise becomes less ; the peasant no 
longer sells his provisions : "When my army leaves the 
country, the excise does not bring in more than a third ; 
the pj^etium rerui% diminishes ; the domains no longer 
pay the rent charge." It is very difficult to avoid 
a fire taking place somewhere. Each year houses, 
villages, and even towns, are burned. This makes 
new "empty places." Nothing more deplorable. 
— Again, can one not remedy these various evils ? 
Move the regiments as little as possible, order 
every village to have its engine and firemen, and 
have the thatched roofs replaced everywhere "inside of 
five years" by tiled roofs. But what is to be done to 
prevent bad crops, and pestilence of man and beast ? 
Frederick William prayed God "in His mercy " to 
spare him these scourges, but God's mercy is uncertain. 
It required all the King of Prussia's religion to admit 
without blasphemy, the possibility that God might take 



THE FATHER. 67 

away from him a man or a beast, each one of which was 
so precious, and counted for such and such a sum in the 
exactitude of his calculations. 

Submittinoj himself to the Divine Will, the kinoj 
at least meant to have all his subjects obey him. "We 
will extend our favor and our protection to all those who 
will observe all the points of this order, and use all our 
power against those who will not. As for the others, 
who insist on returning to the old routine, we will chas- 
tise them exemplarily, Russian fashion, — exemplariscli 
unci auf gut Hiissisch.^^ ^^ 

THE CREATIOX OF PRUSSIAN POWER. 

The remarkable result of this order, made, as the 
king said, "for the strengthening of our crown and 
army," was the advancement of the Prussian army. 
This is the wonder of this reign, and one of the great 
events of history. 

If Frederick William had required military service 
from all the population of his kingdom he would not 
have been able to form out of it that powerful army 
that he wished to give to his little Prussia ; but he was 
careful not to exhaust the productive forces of his terri- 
tories. In the very simple system that he had conceived, 
he must, first of all, make money, and afterward increase 
his troops in proportion to" his new resources, from 
which he deducted a portion to constitute a reserve 
fund of the monarchy. There must be a helping-hand 
extended to industry and agriculture. However, there 
was in the reasoning of all his work the creation of 
a national army. This difficult problem was made 



68 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

stili more complex by the incoherence of the military 
institutions, where modern customs were grafted upon 
the remains of feudalism. In seeking the solution, 
Frederick William ended by arriving, after many at- 
tempts and much groping about, at a mixed regime, 
of which certain parts had an entirely modern spirit. ^^ 
From the Middle Ages proceeded the militia, that is 
to say, the troops of occasion, so that military service 
was an exceptionally easy occupation. The king, 

^ good trooper that he was, had such a horror of this na- 
tional guard that he desired to abolish even its name. 
The principal mode of recruiting was through A^olun- 
tary enlistment obtained by crimping. Frederick 

, William was one of the most extraordinary enlisters of 
soldiers ever known in military history. 

His mania for tall men is famous. He attempted to 
propagate them in his own country; he commanded 
giants to marry giantesses. When he learned that from 

I one of these unions there was born a child Avith large 
hands and feet, he rejoiced and ordered mother and 
child to be sent for immediately ; even in the cold of 
midwinter, and when necessary for the mother to make 
the trip from Cleves to Berlin. ^^ This giant-rearing pro- 
ducing but slight results, he sought for them in countries 

, where they naturally thrived,^ Sweden, the Ukraine, Ire 
land, Lower Hungary, and wherever they could be 
found. And this king, so economical otherwise, dis- 
pensed his thalers by the millions to satisfy this caprice. 
His recruiters respected no laws of peoples, and he had 
to undergo more than one diplomatic scene in regard to 
their acts of brigandage. He was extremely sensitive to 



THE FATHER. 69 

incidents of this kind, would fly into a passion and be 
much troubled over it: *'They will dishonor me," said 
he, for he believed it was to his honor to have only 
giants, at least in his first regiment of Potsdam Grena- 
diers. Once he came near having a war with Hanover, 
who had maltreated his recruiters. The best way of 
paying court to him was to furnish him with giants ; his 
ministers and his son Frederick went so far as to say 
that his fidelity to Austria was explained by the care the 
Emperor took to flatter this passion. He, himself said : 
"To win the most beautiful girl or woman in the world 
would be a matter of indifference to me ; but I have one 
weak point, a mania for soldiers, and in gratifying it, 
one can lead me wherever one wills. "^^ This "weak 
point" cost him so much money, fatigue, and danger, 
that this giant mania of the King of Prussia was re- 
garded as a maniacal freak in the full sense of the wore], 
"and one which cannot be solved," said a foreign Min- 
ister, "unless by some future anatomy." 

This idiosyncrasy ought not to obscure the rest of the 
work. Frederick William recruited and enrolled, out- 
side of his States, more than forty thousand men, and 
from his own people an equal number. It is here that 
he hit u])on a future idea^ For a long time, each regi- 
ment had an assigned district for recruiting, where the 
crimps of the colonel and captains had alone the right 
to exercise their trade, but the regiments encroached 
upon each other, and the institution, badly regulated, 
produced conflicts and disorder. Frederick William 
sketched out through the whole extent of his territory 
these military boundaries, which were determined by 



70 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

the number of arms ; five thousand arms for a reg- 
iment of infantry, fifteen hundred for cavalry : 
the district was subdivided into cantons, one for 
each company. Voluntary enlisting was abolished. 
Some classes of persons were exempt from military 
service and reserved for trades and husbandry, 
which were also, according to Frederick William, 
public service ; these exemptions, however, did not 
interfere with the princij^le thus expressed : ' ' All 
subjects are born to carry arms, — fiXr die Waff en 
geboren^ — and bound to serve in the regiment, — dem 
Megiment ohligat, — in the district where they are born." ^^ 
It made no difference to Frederick William about 
arriving little by little and by indirect ways to the ex- 
pression of this idea of military duty. Ideas follow 
their course, through many obstacles. Besides, they 
never spring from nullity. There was in Frederick 
William, who was a zealous servant of the State, and 
prided himself upon being, in his way, a true republican, 
ein loahrer Mepublikaner, — a predisposition to establish 
the idea of the obligation of military service toward 
the Civitas. The effects of such a declaration of prin- 
ciple must have been considerable. . . . Behold a 
people who are given notice that they are born to carry 
arms ; every child at the same time that he learns the 
name of his village learns that of the regiment "to 
which he is bound." This obligation raises up and 
ennobles the most humble subjects. The peasant, whose 
condition was, in Frederick William's country, that of 
a beast of burden, becomes a member of the State, and 
of a State where the soldier's coat was held in high 



THE FATHER. 71 

esteem: the king's son, when the paternal displeasure 
fell upon him, asked as a favor from "the majesty of 
his father," to reinstate him by giving him back his 
uniform of the Grenadiers. 

Frederick William desired to make the framework 
of the Prussian army out of the nobility of Prussia. 
Up to his time, numerous foreigners had attained the 
highest ranks in Prussia, and Prussian nobles went else- 
where to seek their fortunes: he resolved to reserve his 
nobles for his service, and his service for his nobles. . . 
He not only commenced this great reform, but he recom- 
mended it to his successors: "My successor must have 
all the nobles of all the provinces employed in the army 
and placed among the cadets. This will render him 
formidable. ... If you have officers taken froin 
among the children of your country^ you have a true, 
permanent army, a body of permanent officers, and 
this no other potentate possesses, und Kein Potentat 
hat das. ''"^^ The man who wrote these lines saw the future 
of the Prussian army, and ended by establishing the char- 
acter of the Prussian State. All commonalty subjects 
born to serve, all noble subjects born to command under 
the orders of the king; the social hierarchy transferred 
to the State; the nobility utilized and disciplined ; the 
vanity of the country squire transformed into the i)ride 
of an officer, all this, which is so much to be commended 
and not to be found "in the realms of any potentate," 
proceeded in great part from Frederick William. 

The cohesion of the army, enclosed in this royal 
frame, was assured, through discipline and careful atten- 
tion, of all in the service. For the Kino; of Prussia 



72 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

there were no minutice in soldiery. When he sent his 
son, in 1734, to the Army of the Rhine, he prescribed 
that he should be instructed "fully and carefully in de- 
tail, not only of the regular service, but in all detail ; 
he shall learn how the soldiers' shoes are made, and 
how long a time they can be worn. . . . The 
prince shall go thus from the smallest detail concerning 
the soldier to the greatest, — from the shoe to the can- 
non of the heavy artillery. He shall pass immediately 
into the regular service, in order to train himself up to 
the dispositiones generalissifnini.''''^^ All the detail — to 
use an expression that he repeated so many times, — 
Frederick William regulated, from the length of the 
sleeve, and the width of the collar, to the number of 
buttons on the boot. He really created the Prussian 
uniform, stiff, clean, shining, which once provoked a 
smile, but which is now one of the many expressions of 
the obedience of thousands of men to a single will, 
which foresaw everything. 

Frederick William was not contented to command 
and watch over his army from a high elevation; he as- 
signed himself a place there, and daily duties. He, 
himself, was a colonel to the King of Prussia, the one 
who had the honor to command the tall Grenadiers of 
Potsdam. Every day he attended the parade and drills. 
He submitted to all the regulations. Once, in the 
sjjring, he ordered all the regiments, company by com- 
pany, to be bled ; he was bled first, in the open air, and 
in weather cold enough to snow. Another time, he was 
at Berlin, very ill ; a colonel said by chance before 
him, "that to-morrow is the day that all the colonels 



THE FATHER. 73 

on leave of absence must rejoin their regiments." The 
following day, notwithstanding the entreaties of the 
physicians, he would set out. He 'was seen to j^ass 
through the city, his body wrapped up, and his head 
covered with a nightcap, over which he had i)laced a fur 
cap. Arriving at the gates, he w^as lifted into a chaise, 
in which they had spread out a mattress.*^ 

It is at Potsdam that the Prussian drill is carried to 
perfection. The new movements, the reforms in the 
maneuvers, are tested there before being adopted. 
From the whole army delegations of officers are sentto 
be instructed, as the Crown Prince said later, at "The 
University of Potsdam." It is there that they see how 
the infantry, through extreme care given to every de- 
tail and untiring patience, is so w^ell-trained "that it 
charges with the greatest rapidity, advances in serried 
ranks, presents arms well, sees everything as well under 
fire as in the most profound silence." To bring the 
army to this perfection the king employed grand re- 
views and inspections. He was the Inspector General of 
the Prussian army. Every year„ in the month of May, 
he reviewed the garrison of Berlin, that is to say, six 
regiments of infantry, a regiment of dragoons and six 
squadrons of hussars. Each regiment or each squad- 
ron had its day. Each one of the companies was 
ranged in four files, between which the king passed. 
He examined the men, one by one, addressing a few 
words to most of them: "My son, dost thou receive 
exactly what is due thee?" Or perhaps: "How dost 
thou like our service?" And he listened courteously 
to complaints, particularly when he found things in 



74 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

order, and that no one had made a mistake in the fifty- 
four movements that comprised the drill. The last day, 
after all these special reviews, came the general review. 
The king mounted his horse at 2 o'clock in the morn- 
ing, and, except for a few moments of rej^ose at the 
breakfast hour, he remained in the saddle until evening. 
The inspections were repeated in the provinces and thus 
ended these great military examinations. The reviews 
were frequent and unexpected. By them the king 
ascertained what was passing everywhere, "as if I were 
present," said he, — ''•als Ich bestdndig ^oare," and the 
garrisons were always in the condition of a troop that 
had an enemy at hand or were expecting one. 

He watched assiduously his corps of officers. In the 
reviews and inspections, wherever he met them, they 
had to be presented, or he accosted them ; he talked 
with them, requiring that they should look at him as he 
looked at them, straight in the eyes. He consulted 
their conduct list, the Conduiten Jjiste, which kept an 
exact account of their virtues and vices, of their 
good and bad qualities. He was the censor of their 
morals and habits ; he forbade them ' ' to bedeck the 
livery of their domestics with gold and silver," and 
ordered them always to wear their uniform. He was 
very severe upon those who "kept no account of their 
purse " and ran into debt. He prohibited the luxuries 
of the table : "Of what use is so much ceremony? . . . 
A glass of beer ought to be just as acceptable as a glass 
of wine." He inquired into their religious sentiments, 
for he wished his officers to be just as good Christians 
as good soldiers.*^ In a word, he recommended as a model 



THE FATHER. 75 

the Colonel of the 1st Regiment of the Potsdam Grena- 
diers. He centered upon himself all their attention. 
He gave such a good tone to this corps of officers and 
to all the army, that his successors, even to-day, repeat 
his commands word for word. 

Let us now consider that the army of the King of 
Prussia was augmented from 38,459 men to 44,792 dur- 
ing the year of the accession, in 1713 ; to 53,999 in 1719; 
to 69,892 in 1729; to 83,486 in 1739. Now, France 
had 160,000 soldiers, Austria hardly 100,000; the 
French army was divided into numerous garrisons ; the 
Austrian artny scattered over its vast provinces. 
Neither the Austrian nor even the French army was so 
well organized, armed, equipped as that of the King of 
Prussia ; . finally, in Prussia, the service of the few for- 
tresses required not more than 10,000 men. Thus 70,- 
000 men, at a low estimate, were always ready for the 
march, — marschbereit, ready for battle, — schlagfertig. 

THE INACTION OF THE KING OF PRUSSIA. 

Here lies the explanation of the future, for Frederick 
William did not make use of this power, and that is one 
of the incomprehensible things of his history. Twice 
he took \\i) arms ; at the beginning of his reign, against 
Sweden ; near the end, against France, in the contro- 
versy about the Polish Succession. Still, he did not 
enter into any engagement without anguish of heart. 

It is true that he reigned in a period of peace, and 
that the great occasion for testing the metal of his army 
did not arise; but all Europe, at that time,, was thought 
to be every day on the eve of war. They fought in nego- 



76 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

tiations, they grouped themselves in leagues and coun- 
ter-leagues. Scarcely had the great question of the Span- 
ish Succession been settled by the Treaties of Utrecht, 
Rastadt and Baden, when Spain, in order to regain her 
lost territories, attacked Austria: France, England, Hol- 
land and Austria coalesced against the aggressor. 

While Europe sought to reconcile Spain and Austria, 
in the interest of the latter, Austria, violating her alle- 
giance, came to a direct understanding with Spain 
against her mediators. Then France and England, up to 
that time allied to Austria against Spain, entered into a 
league against Spain and Austria. After ifeome hostili- 
ties, Europe began to negotiate. This time Spain aban- 
doned her ally, Austria, who was obliged to yield to the 
will of Europe. At last, when Stanislas Lecszinski 
had been driven from Poland by the Russians, France 
declared war against Austria, who was the accomplice 
of Russia: this Polish affair was terminated by a treaty 
which gave to the King of Poland a duchy in France, to 
the Duke of Lorraine a duchy in Italy, and to the In- 
fante of Spain the Kingdom of Naples. There was 
then such a strange chasse-croise ot negotiations and in- 
trigues that one would think, as Lord Chesterfield said, 
'*that all Europe was going crazy." 

Frederick William, who was often solicited by these 
makers of leagues and counter-leagues, did not know 
how to figure gracefully in their quadrilles. To take 
into consideration only his great political intrigues, one 
sees him, in 1725, adhering to the union concluded at 
Hanover, of France and England against Austria; then 
hardly a year elapses before he is united with Austria; 



THE FATHER. 77 

he persists long enough in this alliance; but tinaily he 
treats with France, and always wishes to undo what he 
has done, after he has given his w^ord. 

Then followed the uprising of Europe. Epigrams 
from all sides rained down upon him. ''The King of 
Prussia," said the English, " is only a wolf in his own 
sheepfold;" one after tl^.e other, the French ambassadors 
residing at his Court " affirmed that he would not make 
war." They wrote; "The insatiable desire that he has 
for soldiery will make him always keep up a large army; 
but his timidity will constantly oppo,se the execution of 
all engagements that he could undertake to put this 
army into action. These are two principles upon w^hich 
one can rely." "He will be brave enough up to hold- 
ing the sword," but will be always restrained from go- 
ing farther by " the love which he has for his big men, 
that are only for parades, and whom he will never ex- 
pose to danger." Then follow reproaches of inconstancy 
and changeableness. "He is" (according to his own 
servitors), "a prince without plan, without system, who 
goes by fits and starts, passing from one extreme to 
another." A French Minister, obliged to transmit to his 
government these contradictory -statements week after 
week, wondered "how any faith could be placed in 
these dispatches." "The variable moods of the King 
of Prussia and his profound dissimulation," wrote the 
ambassador to Louis XV., "are infinitely above all that 
Your Majesty can imagine." This same official, who 
at that time was the most favored by the king, and 
charged by him to express the most affectionate senti- 
ments toward his country, added: "The faith that I 



78 FKEDEKICK THE GREAT. 

owe to my country and king obliges me to repeat that 
one can never count upon the King of Prussia in any im- 
portant matter." After which he quoted the words of 
Peter the Great in regard to Frederick William: "He 
likes to fish well enough, but without wetting his feet."** 
'Facts seem to justify these accusations. Scarcely does 
Frederick William put his foot in camp before he be 
comes restless, and evinces a strong desire to retire. 
He hardly enters the league of Hanover with France and 
England before he becomes "worn out with these en- 
gagements." He goes over to the Emperor's side; he re- 
grets it, wavers, favors the Minister of France, tries to 
extenuate himself in the eyes of his former allies for the 
gravity of the new treaty, and cavils with th-e Emperor 
in every way: " My God ! " he cried, " I will not go so 
far, — Mein Gott ! So weit will ich nicht gehen.'''' 

He liked to see all Europe on fire; to have it break 
out some place, and spread over the whole continent. In 
1727 Spain, allied to Austria, attacks Gibraltar: this 
is the beginning of a conflagration. The king exults, 
but diplomacy deluges with water the brazier: he be- 
comes very much distressed "at the appearances of a set- 
tlement," which will prevent him from "fishing in the 
troubled waters." When he learns of the signing of 
the preliminaries at Paris he humiliates and mortifies 
the imperial ambassador, saying that his master "should 
have kept him from bragging in that way, and should 
have consented to everything, and that he would 
always be Charles the Stammerer." He has ever the ap- 
' pearance of being ready to set out on a war expedition: 
"Let us grease our boots," he writes in 1729. "I am 



THE FATHER. 79 

persuaded that there is no other means to end all this 
but to give them a good whipping." 

However, if he saw war approaching him, he would 
be in mortal terror. At the time that he was allied to 
France and England he feared that these two powers 
would abandon him, <'so that upon my head alone 
would fall the wrath of the Emperor and Empire, and 
destroy me and my family." Allied to Austria against 
France, he feared being burned and pillaged by the 
French and Swedes. One moment, to settle divers quar- 
rels, he seemed ready to throw himself like mad upon 
Hanover, but he learned this country was in a good state 
of defense. Then he became uneasy, hesitated, finally 
had a fit of anger, and, to calm himself, got on a 
"spree "of several days' duration, with the " ofiicers 
who participated in his debaucheries."^^ Why would not 
Europe at last believe that he loved his soldiers only for 
parade ? At last, in 1734, when he sent his troops to 
join the imperial army on the Rhine, he prescribed that 
they were to make but two miles per day, three at the 
most ; that they were to rest the fourth day ; never to 
break up, never to be inclosed in fortresses, and that 
after each campaign they were to go into winter quar- 
ters, — good winter quarters, of six months' duration. 

However, it would be absurd to accuse Frederick Will- 
iam of cowardice, for they certainly meant to say cow- 
ardice when they wrote timidity. He liked to recall 
that he had tested his bravery, under the eye of God, at 
Malplaquet, "where he had seen hundreds fall at rigljt 
and left." He expressed his true thought when he 
added that he "loved nothinsj in the world better than 



80 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

war," and that "his feet burned when doing nothing."**^ 
As to his dissimulation and duplicity, they were infant- 
ile in comparison with that of the other Courts of 
Europe, particularly Austria. 

The explanation of his conduct is a curious chapter of 
political psychology. 

Frederick William is both Elector in the Empire and 
King of Prussia, which is not a country of the Empire. 
He belongs to Germany, where he has duties, and he is 
a sovereign of Europe, like the King of France and the 
King of England. He finds within himself two person- 
ages, who will necessarily conflict with each other. 

One of his refrains was, that an Emperor was neces- 
sary to Germany : eiyi deiitscher Kaiser solle iind milsse 
hleiben, and that he himself was a good imperialist, gut 
Kaiserlich gesinnt. " All of my blue coats are at the 
service of the Emperor," said he. . . . "All of the 
German princes must be of the canaille if theyxio not 
profess good sentiments toward the Emperor and Em- 
pire ; I would be of the canaille myself if I did not. 
We must have an Emperor ; let us' then be faithful to 
the House of Austria, it is the duty of every honest Ger- 
man. ..." He expressed his fidelity in the strongest 
terms: "For his Imperial Majesty, for his House, and 
for his interest, I would sacrifice with pleasure, my 
blood, my possessions, my country. Before I sever my 
connection with the Emperor, he must repulse me with 
his foot."*^ But, let us listen to the other side of the 
story. If he wished to sustain a German Emperor, it 
was on condition that his sovereignty to such an Emperor 
should remain iutact. He was the only one who could 



THE FATHER. 81 

maintain power and he did not permit the Emperor to 
exercise over him the authority of a supreme judge. 
The appeals of his subjects carried before His Imperial 
Majesty, although they may have been perfectly consti- 
tutional and legal, put him beside himself. He wished 
to break this latter tie that connected him with the Em- 
pire: ''Our interest, as w^ell as that of France," said his 
ministers, "is that there may not be any Emperor after 
this one ; but, if it is necessary to have one, let him be 
a weak prince, incapable of having his commands exe- 
cuted, and one with no more authority than the Doge of 
Venice." *^ 

These two personages, the German Prince and the King 
of Prussia, agreed then to the contract that the first 
should never thwart the second, who was a very sensible 
man. There was the same play in foreign policy, but 
still more complicated, for Frederick William recognized 
in the Emperor Charles VI., as in himself, two person- 
ages: the Chief of the Holy Empire, and the Head of 
the House of Hapsburg, to whom European treaties 
gave possessions outside of Germany, in the Netherlands ' 
and in Italy. If the Chief of the Empire were attacked 
within the Empire, Frederick: William owed him aid and 
rescue, and he would fulfill that duty. He did not wish 
foreigners to mix in German affairs, nor to touch German 
soil. "No Frenchman or Englishman must command 
us Germans. I will place pistols and swords in the cra- 
dle of my children to aid them in ridding Germany of 
foreign nations." Or, again: "If the French attack a 
German village, the German prince who would not pour 
out his })l()()d to the last drop in defending it, would be a 



82 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

Kiijon.'''' In milder but very firm tones he called to mind 
his patriotism on all occasions before the Ministers of 
France: "I cannot suffer them to carry the torch into 
my Empire. I must, and my conscience obliges me to 
do so, employ all my strength to defend the country. . . 
As Prince of the Empire, and good patriot, I could not 
prevent you Frenchmen from trying, if you wished, to 
overthrow Germany. . . . Leave our Holy Empire 
in peace, I pray you." "Frenchman," (it was to La 
Chetardie he sjjoke), "do not be astonished to see the 
king fall again into the Germanism from which he can 
never be withdrawn." One of Frederick William's min- 
isters, Grumbkow, then about to allow himself to be 
bought over by France, deplored this mania of his 
master : "We have to do with a prince who, with much 
mind and ability in certain directions, in others, absorbs 
himself in ideas of Germanism, whence the devil 
"cannot withdraw him." This was, in fact, one of this 
prince's traits of character : he was a German, a good 
German, and it was with all his heart that he cried out 
.at table: ^^ Long live the Germany of the German 
Nation, — V'lvat Germania deutscher Nation .^" But this 
German saw nothing in the affairs of the Emperor out- 
side of Germany ; that was why, at the same time that 
he prayed the Frenchman to leave his Holy Empire in 
peace, he added : "Run down the Emperor and Lnperial- 
ists of Italy, if you will ; the devil take me, if I send 
a man there." He even advised the conquest of the 
Netherlands and Italy: "You will render a service to 
His Imperial Majesty, to whom these countries are a 
heavy burden."''^ 



THE FATHER. 83 

In virtue of these (listhigKO^ which were things that 
appertained to the Germany of former times, it hap- 
pened that Frederick William could be at one and the 
same time, for and against the Emperor. When he be- 
came allied to France and England, in 1725, he reserved 
to himself the right to furnish to the Emperor the con- 
tingent that he owed, in his quality of Elector, at the 
same time that he assisted the King of France with the 
number of troops fixed by the treaty. It certainly is to 
be regretted that this clause had not been put into 
action, and that Europe had not witnessed this spectacle 
of the King of Prussia fighting the Elector of Bran- 
denburg. 

Let us suppose tlie engagement of this combat. To 
which one will Frederick William keep his vows ? Ev- 
idently to the King of Prussia. If the issue depends 
upon him, the Elector of Brandenburg will be beaten 
in company with the Emperor, while the King of 
Prussia and his allies will come off victorious. 
Here is shown the contradiction in which Frederick 
William was embroiled all his life. It was not so easy 
to distinguish the Emperor from the Emj)ire. To say 
nothing of Frederick William waiting, ho])ing, as every- 
body did, for the death of his "very dear friend," the 
Emperor Charles VI., and that he was amused and 
laughed beforehand at the embarrassment that would 
befall the illustrious Archducal House. Charles VI. 
dead, Germany would elect the Emperor that she wished, 
and the House of Hapsburg would cease to be more sa- 
cred than any other in the eyes of the King of Prussia! 
But when the latter said to the Minister of France: 



84 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

*«We will inter the Emperor in great pomji, in pontifi- 
calibus. . . We will see a fine charivari ; the mate- 
rial will be ample, and there will be enough for each one 
to cut himself out a jacket. "^^ He ought to have known 
that the foreign powers would try to cut into the mate- 
rial, and that there would be a great probability of their 
attacking at least "a village of Germany." Frederick 
William thus forgot more than once his Germanism. 
One day, while at parade, as the French Minister, on 
horseback near him, congratulated him upon the fine con- 
dition of his troops, and upon the "skillful, warlike air 
that they had," he replied: "I am charmed that you find 
them so good, since they are absolutely at the service of 
the King of France. Be so kind as to inform him of 
it. . . . When it so pleases France I am ready to beat 
the drum, "^^ Twice he repeated this expression. Finally 
he allowed himself to recall, in the treaty of 1725, "that 
France is guarantee for the treaty of Westj^halia," 
and that "she interests herself particularly in the Ger- 
manic liberty," and it was as a guarantee for this peace, 
as protectress of this liberty, that France had maintained 
anarchy in Gerinany in order to assure herself tranquil- 
lity, and hold her pre-eminence in Europe. 

However, would Frederick William have imitated the 
German princes of former times, who were the slaves of 
French policy, and the enemies of their own country ? 
Not at all. One can affirm that, if the Coalitionists of 
Hanover had made war on the Emperor, he would have 
left the alliance at the first German village burned. He 
treated with the Emperor's enemies; but said : "It was 
only to annoy and force him to make j^i'opositions to 



THE FATHER. 85 

of Austria had had the wisdom of 
paying his blue coats by giving him some of the satis- 
faction he desired, Frederick William would have still 
remained the faithful ally of Charles VI. The King of 
Prussia being contented^ the Elector of Brandenburg 
would have done his duty. But Austria had no more 
regard for him than if he had been "a prince of Zipfel 
Zerhst.^'' The King of Prussia being discontented, how- 
ever, the Elector of Brandenburg'^ would have been com- 
pelled to keep quiet, and Frederick would have sacrificed 
everything in order to bring down upon the Emperor a 
terrible vengeance. 

He surely must have been faithless, since he makes 
engagements with the intention of never keeping them. 
He prides himself upon having put in his treaty with 
the Emperor "more than sixty restrictions and equivoca- 
tions to get out of it ; " but it must not be forgotten, if 
one wishes to be just toward him, that his duplicity 
came, in part, from his being double. ^^ 

As King of Prussia, his j^olicy was entirely simple and 
connected: he wished to enlarge Prussia. -JHe had, or 
believed he had, rights over the Duchies of Berg and Ju- 
liers: he demanded these rights to be recognized. With- 
out shame, he sold himself to the highest bidder: ''I 
will not give myself for pears and apples." He had a 
charming way of accepting offers. When France pro- 
posed Elbing to him, on condition that he recognized 
Stanislas Lecszinski as King of Poland, he wrote on the 
margin of the French dispatch: ** Finally, I will say, 
like the late Queen Anne of Austria : ' Cardinal, you are 
so persuasive that I am obliged to succumb to your 



86 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

wishes.'" If he regretted engagements as soon as he 
made them, it was because he believed that, being free, 
he would find the occasion for a better scheme. At the 
time of the commencement of the War of the Polish 
Succession, he confessed his chagrin at being united to 
the Emperor: " My position should be to-day, such as 
would give me the most realistic advantages." This 
was not duplicity ; there was nothing simpler in the 
world. 

Frederick William had such a guileless heart that he 
understood nothing of the affairs of diplomacy. In it, 
he brought to play passion and childish caprice. He 
had the good fortune to be Elector and King at the same 
time: he did not like others to have the same priv- 
ileges. It displeased him that the Elector of Saxony 
was scheming to be King of Poland, and the Elector 
of Hanover King of England. Literally, it made 
him jealous to see the Hanoverians "cut such a fine fig- 
ure in the world," and he was grieved at their prosper- 
ous condition. ^^ He knew George II. at the time when 
he was but the grandson of an Elector of Hanover ; he 
played with him, he even beat him: he could not bear 
that this gamin should become so great a prince, and lord 
it over him. He called him "my dear brother, the come- 
dian," or "my dear brother, the red-cabbage." He used 
such abusive language toward him that it will not bear 
repetition. As to Augustus of Poland, he never called 
him anything but "the clothes-peg." His manner of 
venting his ill humor on these princes was strictly in- 
fantile. He broke up a service of china with a cane, 
because it was Saxony- ware, and came from the King of 



THE FATHER. 87 

Poland. Sick, and angrily rehearsing again and again 
his trials with England, he remembered that he had in 
his stable a horse that had been given him by the King 
of England ; he ordered this animal to be turned out. 
He was advised to give it, instead, to Prince Anhalt, 
"the enemy of everything English." He consented, and 
thought that he would in this way be well revenged. 
At another time, he refused passports for wood destined 
for England. ^^ 

One cannot, without placing in it some restrictions, call 
a man treacherous who so freely published his senti- 
ments. Europe knew what he thought; he cried it out. 
Upon each and every thing, he expressed himself with 
absolute freedom. At his Imperial Majesty he laughed 
"immoderately," and said: "He has not a sou, he is 
poor as a painter. This is the .... economy of 
the Court of Vienna." In the smoking-room, at table, 
he was never without pipe or glass. If he was content 
with the Emperor, he drank three consecutive times to 
His Majesty, draining it to the last drop. And he tired 
the Imperial Minister with these healths, and this before 
the French Minister, although he did not drink to the 
King of France for an hour and a half, nor honor 
poor La Chetardie with the shortest toast. Another 
day, he would drink to the King of France, and omit the 
health of the Emperor. He gave France more than one 
caress, and always took care to treat her circumspectly, 
but he hated her, and could not hide it. The first time 
he received La Chetardie, as was his custom, he intei- 
viewed him upon everything, — the French troops, 
French game, the wine of Chani])agno, the marshals, the 



88 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

weak 23oints of Magdeburg, Molinism, Jansenism, 
Parliament, and then, suddenly beginning to talk 
through his nose, "Why," asked he of La Chetardie, 
"were the Frenchmen of the olden times so grave and 
stately, and to-day, they are nearly all comedians ? " ^^ 

In foreign politics, as in government, the King of 
Prussia acted with the easy-going fashion of a free indi- 
vidual. He was not a Chief of State who had inter- 
course with other States; he was a disagreeable, foul- 
mouthed person, who carried on his business with other 
persons. One of his ministers has well defined his man- 
ner: "To have a correct idea of his sentiments in re- 
gard to England, consider him as an individual who 
takes his revenge at the risk of being hung." Frederick 
William knew well his own infirmity. One day he 
acknowledged it to his son: "Follow the example of 
thy father," said he to the Crown Prince, "in finance 
and in military affairs ; do better still when thou shalt 
be master . . . ; " then, giving him a little friendly 
slap: "Take care not to imitate him in what is called 
ministerial affairs, for he understands nothing about 
that."" For this reason he did not like to negotiate him- 
self. He could not help saying what he thought: "It 
is stronger than I," said he. He was so incapable of 
diplomatic politeness that he reproached the Ministers 
of France and Austria at his Court for not disputing 
like "street arabs." One day, in an audience given to 
an Envoy Extraordinary from England, he threw upon 
the ground a paper that this personage presented to him, 
and turned his back. Another day he received the Min- 
ister of Holland, whose propositions displeased him; he 



THE FATHER. 89 

left the room as if in sudden haste for something. The 
Holland Minister waited respectfully, but at the end of 
half an hour he descended into the court-yard, where 
he learned His Majesty had gone off on horseback. 

His conversation disconcerted the diplomats. He led 
his interlocutor from Muscovia to Gibraltar, "from Gib- 
raltar to the Netherlands, then back finally to Port-Ma- 
hon, so as to pass suddenly to Constantinople, and return 
to Vienna." He had no fixed ideas except in the care of 
his own interests. 

He interrupted dissertations by one of his refrains : 
"Good for a few shovelfuls of sand," meaning to say 
that he "loved to acquire new territories for the ag- 
grandizement of his estates." To attain them, he would 
never do anything that was necessary ; but, to gratify 
him in this resi3ect, the others had to run all the risks, 
he alone drawing out the profit. It was thus that his 
accredited Ministers, when near him, were the most un- 
happy diplomats. Berlin was their purgatory, their 
hell. Rottenburg would rather have become a "Carthu- 
sian" than remain longer at this Court. The Austrian 
Seckendorff, himself, the favorite, the indispensable 
companion at table and in the smoking-room, did not 
relish it either. Someone met him on the street in Ber- 
lin, and, surprised to see him there while the King Avas at 
Potsdam, asked him what he was doing: "Alas I" said 
he, "I am like the servants in the Gospel. I remain 
when they tell me to remain ; I depart when they tell 
me to depart. . . If the Emperor would give me a 
province for another year's service, the devil take me if 
I would accept." ^^ 



90 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

The king returned the sentiments that the diplomats 
expressed toward him. He did not like to see them, 
and would oftener send them to his ministers, who 
would receive them in conference, four around a 
table, and one of them holding a pen. You would 
think it was "a tribunal of the Inquisition, where a 
secretary reduced ad protocolum, on the instant, the 
most insignificant speech." The report was forwarded 
to the king, with the counsel, which he accepted or not, 
as it pleased him. He distrusted his ministers, and he 
had reason ; nearly every one of them betrayed hini ; 
some sold themselves to France, and others to Austria. 
He did not know just how far they betrayed him ; but, 
pf their treachery, which exceeded almost the improba- 
ble, he did not doubt. One of the most extraordinary 
traits of this prince was his absolute indifference to the 
infidelity of his agents, in foreign political matters. 
He wrote upon the report of one minister: "You 
are too fond of guineas;" on the report of another: 
"You are too fond of louis'," but he dismissed 
neither the one nor the other. It even pleased him that 
these "Mazarins," as he said, received from foreign sov- 
ereigns, what La Chetardie called ' ' tokens of sentiment 
and essential proofs of gratitude." "I am aware," said 
he, "that many of my people are bribed by France, and 
I. know them all. Well and good ! If France wishes 
to be so foolish as to give them pensions, they have but 
to accept. The money will remain in the country, and 
they and their children will spend it . . . but they 
deceive themselves if they think they can lead me by the 
nose." One would suppose that he saw in these treach- 



THE FATHER. 91 

eries but a means of importing hard cash. Besides, he 
arranged to have always two parties in his Ministry. 
One day he received, very gruffly, the Imperialists, who 
asked to have an Anglo-French colleague dismissed. 
He would listen to first one party and then the other, 
and reserve to himself the decision, which was, in sub- 
stance, always this: not to risk anything, nor to act.^^ 
What were the true reasons for this ? There seem to 
have been several. It certainly must have cost the King 
of Prussia very much to expose to peril such fine sol- 
diers, so well clothed and well equipped, and so 
perfect in the drill a la Prussian. We also know that 
the least displacing of troops interfered with the compu- 
tations of his receivers and the exact proportion of re- 
ceipts and expenses ; the surplus that he had to make 
each year was endangered, lost perhaps, replaced really 
by a deficit. But, on the same conditions that he would 
have risked a capital, when he had the hope of drawing 
from it a fine interest, Frederick William would have 
risked his soldiers, if he had seen a way of gaining a 
province. Now, he knew that no one was sincerely dis- 
posed to €ome to his aid, and he would, at the decisive 
hour, find himself alone against all. The inheritance 
of Juliers and Berg was the principal object of his am- 
bition; but France did not care about seeing Prussia at 
Dusseldorf; Holland dreaded still more this neighbor, 
so powerfully armed ; neither did the King of England, 
Elector of Hanover, one who laid claim to grand roles in 
Germany, wish the growth of the power of Prussia. 
The Emperor had been watching for a long time, with 
uneasiness, the progress of the Hohenzollern, and he had 



92 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

personal motives for not displeasing the competitors of 
the king to the succession to the duchies. Frederick 
William had then to do with a very strong opposing 
party. When he thought of the dangers he might have 
to encounter, he vras as if taken with vertigo, Prussia 
was not yet solid ; he knew it well. He felt that she 
lived and moved in him; he nourished her; he fortified 
and animated her with his mind ; his prodigious activ- 
ity started the inertia of his incongruous subjects; his 
bureaux and his army organized a State and made a 
country, but the work was not yet finished. This Fred- 
erick William was the first true Prussian of Prussia, 
there are millions, to-day, of these Prussians: but he 
was the only one of his time, and if, a century after his 
epoch, it appeared possible, as Heinrich Heine said, 
" that Napoleon could whistle and Prussia would exist 
no longer," it would have been sufficient for Frederick 
William to take a false step, and Prussia would never 
have been born. 

Thus he did not dare to act alone, and, at the 
same time, he had too much pride to figure as a 
nonentity, in a combination. The ways of the great 
powers irritated him. France, England, Austria, Hol- 
land, held a high head with him, accustomed as they 
were to rule the world. He called them the "quad- 
rille dancers," and yet he feared them while he 
mocked them. If he entered into treaties it was to 
be as equal with equal. He explained himself very 
frankly, at the time of the negotiations of the Hano- 
verian League. "I will not enter into war," said he, 
"for the benefit of the Hollanders, so that they may 



THE FATHER. 93 

be able to sell at a higher price tea, coffee, cheese 
and china ! I wish to know about the joo^ aux roses 
(the secret). . . . " This pot cmx roses was that 
they were going to make war on the Emperor, and 
take some provinces away from him; "but to whom 
will fall, in the division, the provinces taken from 
the Emperor? ... If I make conquests will I 
retain them or will it be necessary to give them all 
up ? And if I give them up who will pay my war 
expenses? I mean to know all the secrets, as well as 
the Very Christian King and the King of Great Brit- 
ain, and to regulate with all of them whatever comes 
up, as an equal party, not as a subaltern and an in- 
ferior. ... If I am going to accede to this 
Hanover alliance, I will not enter into it as an errand- 
boy.'"*^ He had very explicit reasons for speaking in 
this way ; he remembered the affronts received by his 
grandfather, the Great Elector, and his father, Fred- 
erick I.; the conquests that they had to surrender, 
treaties signed, after they fought in the wars, with- 
out even allowing them to consult their own in- 
terests. 

He did not wish to act alone, and yet was discon- 
tented with all other company : what then remained 
for him to do ? First to storm against all the other 
powers; and he lent himself to it with a right good 
will. One day, during a dinner, he was speaking, in 
a desultory way, of the affairs of the continent, "and 
ended the repast by making everybody drink a bum- 
per to the approaching confusion of all Europe/"'' 
This confusion he expected, hoped and prepared for, 



94: FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

in husbanding all his strength. Already he was '^ re- 
spectable," and saw very well that they held him to 
be of some account, and he was proud of it. "All the 
most imposing, powers seek me, and emulate each 
other in fondling me, as they would a bride. 
They will always be obliged to seek a prince who 
has a hundred thousand men ready for action and 
twenty-five million crowns to sustain them." He had 
now gained that point where he had no need of 
anyone. Like his father and grandfather, he could 
have found subsidy in foreign countries if he had 
wished, but it was "a thing he had never done and 
would never do." He intended to remain his own 
master, and gloried "in following his own impulse," 
that is to say, "his momentary caprice." The repre- 
sentatives of the older powers had to take the greatest 
precautions with him: "I would rather eat bread and 
cheese all my life," said he, "than to suffer them to 
impose upon me the law of talking, when I do not 
wish to do so."'^^ 

From time to time, he liked to make himself 
believe that he would act some day. He spoke of 
possible "revolutions" at the death of the Czarina, 
or of the King and Queen of Sweden, the King of 
Poland or of the Emperor: "All these successions 
are disputed," said he, "and even if the King of 
England should be missing, the Pretender would find 
followers enough to support him, to give perhai)S 
occasion for some trouble." He survived the most of 
these events, which did not turn out as he expected, 
or he did not know how to profit by them ; he re- 



THE FATHER. 95 

served himself perhaps for the "trouble" that would 
follow the death of the Emperor. He preferred 
however to leave to his son, with an account of the 
wrongs done him, the care of action and revenge. 
He pronounced more than one prophetic word, among 
others this one, as he pointed to the Crown Prince: 
"Here is one who will avenge me some day — Da 
steht einer der mich rdchen wirdy It seems that he 
accepted philosophically the role that would be assigned 
to him in Prussian history. 

He wrote as early as 1722, in an Instruction for 
his successor, these remarkable words: "The Elector 
Frederick William has given to our House develop- 
ment and prosperity ; my father has acquired royal 
dignity; I ham made a State of the army and coun- 
try. Upon you, my dear successor, is devolved the 
maintenance of what there is and the gaining of 
those countries which belong to us through God and 
our right." 

THE INDIVIDUALITY OF FREDERICK WILLIAM. 

Frederick William was constantly occupied with his 
affairs. As they were never completed, and never 
went together, his mind knew no repose. He was 
born restless and turbulent, predisposed to misuse life 
and the practicality of life, forcing and aggravating 
it out of the natural, making of himself one of the 
most tortured beings ever known to history. 

He suffered in body as well as mind. His frame 
showed strength during the first years of his reign. 
His limbs were strong and well proportioned. From 



96 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

out his serious, cold, oval face with its high fore- 
head, sparkled a mobile eye that saw everything. It 
could become, at will, intensely set on an object that 
it wished to scrutinize or on a soul that it wished to 
read. The lips seemed always ready to speak, not to 
say amiable things, but to interrogate, with an ex- 
pression of disdain, as if they were sure that the 
speaker was a liar or a knave. P'rederick William ^^ 
was a blonde in spite of himself : as a child, he ex- 
posed himself to the sun so as to brown his girl 
skin. As soon as he commenced to wear the short 
j3erruque a queue, he chose a brown one. He feared 
no fatigue, and exhausted himself and those around 
him. The horse, the carriage, the cart, the hunt, the 
table, the wine, the tobacco, were all too strong for 
him. Early in life, he was seized with the gout, 
then shaken by apoplexy, and swollen by dropsy. 
He ^rew so large that his waist measured four ells. 
The attacks of these maladies became more and more 
frequent; he became deaf from the . eif ects "of an in- 
flammation of the ears;" he would suddenly become 
drowsy, or again, he would swoon away ; and his face 
would be streaked blue and red. It is said that, at 
times, the skin under his thighs would become de- 
tached and look like a bladder of fresh pork. ^^ We 
have the detail of one of his maladies: the sufferings he 
endured were horrible. He said that a king should 
know how to suffer better than any other mortal, but 
his stoicism was interrupted by fits of anger, and his 
natural endurance gave way to fury. It must never be 
forgotten, in judging Frederick William, that he lived 
in constant torture. 



THE FATHER. 97 

It is not true that he was naturally wicked, and that 
he did not love even his own family. He assuredly 
loved his wife. He was but eighteen years old when he 
married, and had, up to the time of his marriage, so 
much modesty that he would blush when a lady would 
kiss his hand through respect. His disposition showed 
itself in his conjugal love. At twenty-five, when 
he became king, he already had five children; the queen 
bore him nine more. He was to the last a faithful hus- 
band. He came forth conqueror from the strong tempta- 
tions put upon his virtue, while on a trip to the Court of 
Dresden. He wrote : "I have returned, after this trial, 
as I departed," One day, while traveling, he took 
pleasure in talking to a pretty woman; General 
Grumbkow offered himself as negotiator; the king re- 
pulsed him sharply. He did not intend to be untrue to 
his Fiehchen^ or Fifi^ as he called Sophia Dorothea. An- 
other time, he met one of the Queen's ladies-in-waiting, 
on a stairway, caught her by the waist and began cajol- 
ing her. He received a slap. "Oh! the wicked little 
devil ! " he cried. This was all his complaint. 

These two anecdotes, which are perhaps not authen- 
tic, 'compose his history as a gallant, and in what a 
cfentury I 

He esteemed his wife, and gave her a })roof of it when, 
he set out on his campaign for Pomerania. "If anything 
of importance happens," writes he to his secret counsel, 
"tell my wife and take her advice, Soil an meine Frau 
gesagt icerden . . ." Frederick William was, per- 
haps, the only Hohcnzollern that ever gave an order of 
this kind, for the principal function of queens in Prus- 



98 . FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

sia is maternity. He asked nothing more than to love 
his children. His first Instruction for the education of 
the Croyn Prince was t)f a father who wished to be cher- 
ished by his son. It would seem that he had the qualities 
of a good husband and father. But he meant to 
rule in household 'as well as in state, without ar- 
guments, ■ and he intended that his wife and chil- 
dren should have no other tastes than his, that they 
should bear with his ill-humor, even when it was exe- 
crable, and whenever it pleased him to bring it down 
upon those around him. The slightest resistance, the 
least hesitation irritated him. It was not necessary for 
the queen to oppose him long, before he would hurl at 
her words like these: "The loss of a woman is not 
more than the loss oj a hollow tooth, which pains one 
while it is being pulled, but which one is delighted to 
be rid of the moment after. "^^ If the opj^osition became 
worse, if it took the character of a rebellion, the good 
husband, the good father, gave himself up- to extreme 
anger. Then, too, he lived very little with his family; 
the drill at Potsdam, the hunt, the trips of inspection, his 
solitary rides, separated him from them. He saw them 
around him at table, in the general confusion of a large 
comjjany, and in»the perpetual tumult of his thoughts. 

To live a sedative life, and, above all, to hold a court 
he had neither the taste nor the time.. He passed four 
or five hours each day'^^ in his cabinet, listening to re- 
ports, having the ministers' questions read, writing his 
answers, or designing them, for he responded as well by 
a rebus, and often in a very clear way; all comprehended 
what was meant by a gibbet on the margin of a question. 



THE FATHER. \)\) 

He passed, on an average, two hours at his principal re- 
ports and all evening in drinking and smoking. Be- 
fore dinner, he would go to the parade; afterward take 
a walk, or ride in a carriage or on horseback; but upon 
the road or in the street, he worked. He talked of his 
affairs with those who accompanied him. He had oftener 
some object in these promenades; to surprise a sentinel, 
to watch oyer the work of the peasants and workmen, 
the buildings particularly, for he had the ambition to 
enlarge and embellish Berlin. It was one of his great 
pleasures to watch a house going up, and to enter into a 
conversation with the architects and builders. On his 
way he would stop to receive petitions, to ask people 
their names, or question the couriers as to where they 
were going ; he would give information to those seeking 
a street or a house. Once he entered a lodging where he 
heard a great uproar, and forced a couple who were 
quarreling to embrace. He was the terror of loungers, 
and dispersed with blows of his cane those'that lingered 
to play at bowls. His subjects dreaded to meet him, 
and evaded the meeting at need by flight. It is said 
that one day he carried on tjie following dialogue with 
one of these runaways: "Why are you running?" 
"Because I am afraid." "You must not be afraid, you 
must love me." And, to make the poor devil more 
sensible of his duty of loving, he gave him a good 
flosfSfino-. '' 

Very laborious were his inspections in the provinces. 
For these journeys no gilded carriages, nor outriders, 
nor lackeys, as in the time of his father, who seemed to 
be always posing before some Van der Meulen ; no 



100 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

ladies, whose gowns feared the dust, who retarded the 
departure in the morning, and had to be entertained all 
along the route with frivolities. Not even an escort, 
except along the frontier of the "anarchy" of Poland. 
Four or five post carriages, well equipped, the relay 
awaiting them at the hour apjjointed, were sufficient ta 
transport the ting, generals and counselors that had to 
travel with him. They worked while on the journey. 
It took two weeks for Frederick I. to go from Berlin to 
Konigsburg ; four days was enough f oi^ his son ; in three 
days Frederick William went from Berlin to Cleves. 
His visit was not expected : everywhere he desired to 
surprise the colonels, the Chambers of Administra- 
tion, the farmers, judges, foresters. All appearance 
of a reception was forbidden ; the king dined at an 
inn, as well at one as at another, and contented him- 
self with a chicken and soup, cabbage with salt 
meat, a roast of veal with butter, and cheese for a finish. 
He had not a minute to lose; heexamined the regiments, 
the funds, the accounts, he counted the vacant places in 
the fields and in the cities. Between times he exercised 
his justice. He discovered the proof of malpractice in 
the accounts of the Domain of Lithuania, and ordered 
an inquest: the Counselor of the Domains, Yon Schla- 
buth, found guilty of embezzlement of a sum destined 
for the establishment of colonies, was condemned to sev- 
eral years' imprisonment. The king did not confirm the 
judgment. He reserved his supreme decision for his 
next journey through Prussia. On arriving at Konigs- 
burg he summoned Sclilabuth, reproached him for his 
crime, and declared he deserved to be hung. Schlabuth 



THE FATHER. 101 

exclaimed: "It is not customary to hang noblemen;" 
furthermore, he had returned the embezzled funds. "I 
do not want your dirty money," cried the king, who gave 
the order to take him away. He had a gallows erected 
in the "night, under the windows of the Chamljer of 
Administration. There was great excitement in the 
city. An unprecedented action this, a condemnation, 
without trial, contrary to a judgment ! The family did 
everything to save the unfortunate man. The next day 
/ being Sunday, they had twenty-four hours to attempt to 
bend the judge. At divine service the preacher took 
for the text of his sermon the words: "Blessed are the 
merciful, for they shall obtain mercy." The king wept, 
but the day following he convoked a meeting of the 
Chamber of Administration, and, under the eyes of the 
counselors, had their colleague hung. 

THE PLEASURES OF FREDERICK WILLIAM. 

Frederick William had also his hours of relaxation 
and pleasure, and some enjoyment of life. It was not 
at the door of philosophy he knocked, nor of science. 
He had a horror of all speculation that did not produce 
immediate practical application. When a child he had 
too often heard, at the court of his mother, who was 
the great friend of Leibnitz, about monads, infinitely 
great and infinitely small, and pre-established harmony." 
He understood nothing of these profound doctrines, 
and called bluntly all philosophy a Windmacherei, 
wind-making. As the wind did not pay the excises, the 
king was ready to ])r()hil)it the manufacture of it as use- 
less. He readily believed the ('ounsclors who re})re- 



102 FKEDERICK THE GREAT. 

sented it to be dangerous. One day be committed a 
barbarous act against tbe most celebrated pbilosopber 
of bis day. Wolf, a disciple of Leibnitz, taught tbe 
doctrines of bis master at Halle. His rivals of tbe 
University and bis adversaries, tbe bigots, organized a 
cabal against bim. It is said tbey represented to tbe 
king tbat, according to tbe theories of Wolf, a Potsdam 
Grenadier could desert unscrupulously, alleging tbat 
be was, from creation, predisposed to tbe desertion in 
virtue of pre-establisbed barmony. Tbe king considering 
*'tbat tbe letters and lessons of Professor Wolf were 
contrary to tbe religion revealed by tbe word of God," 
ordered tbe said professor to leave tbe city and king- 
dom in f orty-eigbt bours, ' ' under penalty of strangu- 
lation." Four years after, be interdicted tbe reading 
of Wolf's writings, filled witb " atheistical principles," 
under penalty of hard labor for life. It is true tbat 
toward tbe latter part of bis reign be saw bis error. To 
make reparation, be did all that could be expected of 
bim ; be wrote to Wolf, offered bis excuses, made brill- 
iant overtures to bim, and, in tbe most persuasive way,^^ 
urged bim to return, but Wolf was not to be won ; be 
put off bis entrance into Prussia until tbe accession of 
Frederick II., tbe King-Philosopher. 

Through the advice of Leibnitz, Frederick I. had 
founded a "society of scientists." ^ He bad given them 
a magnificent role: to glorify German Science, to purify 
tbe German Language, to study the History of Germany 
and tbe Church, Physics, Mathematics, Astronomy, Me- 
chanics, ways of propagating the faith and preserving 
the KinQ:dom of Prussia from inundations and fire. 



THE FATHER. 103 

From this repertory several articles must have pleased 
Frederick William, notably tLe last. lie did not with- 
draw the royal donation from the society. He even 
showed them marks of favor when they asked permis- 
sion to open an anatomical lecture hall, but, as they 
were thanking him, he said: "Work with more zeal 
than you have done heretofore. . . Your society 
must apply itself to inventions capable of advancing arts 
and sciences, but in a way that they may be generally 
useful ; no wind-manufacturing ; none of those lying 
dreams in which so many worthy men lose them- 
selves." 

He expressed his contempt for science in a most pecul- 
iar manner. He had in his own service a man by the 
name of Gundling, a great savant, a polygraph, w^hose 
very extended knowledge he used in matters of law and 
politics. He made him his commensal and the indis- 
pensable habitue of his "tabagie." Among other favors 
he gave him the entire use of his wune-cellar, knowing 
well that the doctor would abuse this privilege. He 
made him drunk every day; he enjoyed it, and desired 
others to be amused at the poor man's expense, by dirty, 
dishonoring jokes. He called him the "Court Jester," 
so as to heap upon him all the dignities he could think of 
that were ridiculous. He made him Grand Master of 
Ceremonies, Grand Chamberlain, a baron with grotesque 
armorial bearings, and President of the Society of 
Sciences, President — after Leibnitz ! In the same man- 
ner he treated Dr. Fassmann and Dr. Bartholdi, Pro- 
fessor of Law in the University of Frankfort-on-the-Oder, 
whom he called "Mr. Pandects," and the astronomer 



104 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

Graben zuni Stein, whom lie snrnamed " Mr. Astralicus." 
Graben was also nominated President of the Academy 
of Sciences. The king took the trouble to reject the 
nomination. 

He boasted of Graben's knowledge of antiquities, new 
and old coins, physics, mechanics, botany, hydraulics, 
pneumatics, statics, and cabal, of his art of knowing 
how to examine evil spirits, with the use and abuse 
that could be made of it, of the wonderful preadamite 
doctrine, history, physics, logic, the combinatory art of 
algebra, etc., etc. Graben had, among other duties, the 
arrangement of the calendar. He had to be circumspect 
in his predictions, to announce the fewest possible bad 
days, and the greatest number of good days. He had 
the charge of watching over spirits. The incredulity of 
men had, of course, passed the bounds of hobgoblins, 
ghosts, etc., but there were still dwarfs, wehr-wolves; 
they could be found in the lakes, marshes, caverns, and 
hollows of old trees: Graben had to work out their 
destruction. For each one of these wicked spirits that 
he captured, dead or alive, he was to receive a prize of 
six thalers. And, lastly, according to an ancient tradi- 
tion, the soil of Brandenburg, principally around the old 
monasteries, was sown with treasures. Every ten years, 
to assure herself that these treasures were undisturbed, 
Rome sent Jesuits and other A'ermin there. Graben 
must try to catch these rascals, but the most important 
of all was to find the treasures, by the means that were 
used then ; the king put at his disposition the books on 
magic that he found in the archives, with the speculum 
Salomo7iis. . . "In witness of which we have sis^ned 



THE FATHER. 105 

this ordinance with our own hand, and appended thereto 
our royal seah . ."'^'^ 

Frederick William was not insensible to the charm of 
the arts. He was a natural musician, and loved music. 
From the ^^Chapelle'''' of his father he had kept an 
artist whom he had made Master of the '-'•Chapelle des 
Ilant-hois^'' of his Grenadier Guard. From time to time,, 
in the evening, he had them play the choruses and airs 
of two of Handel's operas that were his favorites. 
Sometimes he would drop off to sleep, or seem to do so, 
and the leader would skip a few measures. The king- 
would always notice it: *'You have not played such an 
air," he would say, and then sing the first notes; they 
had to recommence. He thus heard, hundreds and hun- 
dreds of times, the same arias. He did not wish to be 
disturbed by an audience : in the long hall where the 
musicians were stationed at one end with their music- 
stands and candlfes, he would place himself at the other, 
all alone, in the dark. It was evident, then, that he 
had a taste for this fine heroic music, but, as he could 
not keep from mixing irony with the serious things of 
life, and turning everything to coarse comicality, he 
was delighted the day that the Master surprised him 
with a pig sextet that he had composed from a story 
told in the smoking-room. The king had him repeat the 
piece twenty times, while he held his sides and laughed 
until the tears streamed down his face. 

He was a painter, as well as a musichm, during his 
leisure moments. When the bad weather or o^out con- 
fined him to his apartments, as he could not "remain 
doing nothing," he painted. Pictures by him, exe- 



106 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

cuted during these fits of the gout, bore the signature: 
In tormentis pinxit. F. W. He preferred caricature 
sketching. He liked droll beasts, bears and monkeys. 
It is told that at the princii^al 230st of Potsdam was an 
old bear who understood the military commands. At 
the cry: Heraiis! he would go out, raise himself up on 
his hind legs, and fall in line with the company; he 
recognized, it appears, the voice of the king, who was 
very proud of it. The king had at the palace, among 
other animals, cubs and monkeys, that he used for low 
farces at the "Tobacco Club." These animals were the 
principal insi3irers of his pencil. He would dress them 
up as men, and make them play the human comedy, 
like the artists and writers of the Middle Ages. 

Through conscientious scruples he mistrusted come- 
dies; so he did not have, like his father, a French Com- 
edy, nor an Italian Opera; but, one day at Charlotten- 
burg, he admired extravagantly a certain Eckenberg, 
who held on his extended arm a drummer seated on a 
cannon. He immediately accorded him a privilege. 
" Whereas ; Mr. Eckenberg, celebrated for his extraor- 
dinary strength, has given at the Palace of Charlotten- 
burg many remarkable proofs of the power with which 
God has endowed him, in presence of and for the great 
pleasure of His Majesty; seeing that the said party has 
requested His Majesty, in all humility, not only to give 
him a letter of recommendation, but also permission to 
visit his kingdom, provinces and countries, and give an 
exhibition of this said strength in all the cities and 
towns that he pleased," order was given to the civil and 
military authorities to take care of and give him aid. 



THE FATHER. 107 

Eckenberg, that they commonly called the "Strong 
Man," was promoted to the dignity of " Master of the 
Pleasures of the King," and " Royal Prussian Court 
Comedian." The j^rivilege was conferred to give, "be- 
sides these exhibitions of strength and rope-dancing, 
theatrical representations with the assistance of his 
troop, for the recreation of those who did not have too 
much to do. . . , under the condition that he would 
represent and play things that were not impious, sinful, 
scandalous, dishonest or injurious to Christianity, but, 
on the contrary, innocent things which would procure 
people honest amusement, — honestes Amusement. . ." 
Major-General Count Alexander Von D5nhoff was 
given the charge of these comedians, and we have from 
this celebrated military man such report, where he lays 
before His Majest}^: 1st, That, conformably to the gra- 
cious decision of His Majesty, stating that the deserter, 
John Baptist Mumieux, must be hung, he has "notified 
him of the death-sentence;" 2d, that the "Strong Man," 
Eckenberg, dismissed Harlequin and the Dentist, but 
that, after the affair had been explained to him, — this 
sending off of two of his best actors, without the permis- 
sion of His Majesty, — he had taken them back again, and 
had counted out to them their weekly wages. Another 
day the king learned that the "Strong Man" and his 
wife, while they were both drunk, threw themselves upon 
the comedian AValldorf, and without cause, heaped him 
with insults, blows and kicks. The General had to 
tear him away from the hands of Eckenberg, or he 
would have been strangled to death. But the two 
drunkards ran ui)on the stage, insulting and maltreating 



108 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

the actors. The play had been interrupted ; the people 
fled. The General had to conduct the '< Strong Man" 
and his wife to the post-house, while "they honored 
him with curses." 

Thus the Court Theater was not particularly condu- 
cive to the improvement of morals. '^^ Their favorite 
plays were Italian farces, "full of agreeable intrigues, 
and highly burlesque," as the playbills stated. They 
employed both men and dummies; the king preferred 
the dummies; in reality, he liked only the marionettes; 
sometimes he would distrust them. Once he was pres- 
ent at a play, and noticed some shocking words that 
were uttered by one of these puppets. He gave an or- 
der to Roloff, Counselor of the Consistory, to go to the 
theater and tell them what he thought of this play. 
The minister of the gosj)el recoiled from this office, in- 
voking to his aid the duties and dignity of his calling. 
The king admitted these reasons, but he related his em- 
barrassment to one of his confidential men, Eversmann, 
Chamberlain-janitor of the palace, and he was acquainted 
with a deacon who would undertake the function of 
censor. The deacon received orders to go to the play 
that evening, and place himself in view of the king. 
He was to listen attentively, and as soon as a passage 
offended him he was to draw out his tablet and make a 
note of it. The king, who was looking at him, noticed 
the impropriety of the speech, arose abruptly, and left 
the playhouse. That very evening he ordered the come- 
dians to leave the city in twenty-four hours, forbidding 
them to ever return. 

So it was, even the marionettes had their faults, and 



THE FATHER. 100 

the pleasures of the theater their disappointments. They 
tried to make the king believe that the hunt itself was not 
innocent, and that the soul of a Christian was in peril 
there; but here their trouble was lost; he always con- 
tinued to be a passionate hunter. In Prussia, he made 
raids on the bear and wild ox. In Brandenburg and 
Pomerania, he hunted the deer, wild boar, pheasant, 
heron, hare and quail. He threw into this diversion 
wild enthusiasm; firing in one day six hundred shots to 
bring down a hundred quail. The wild-boar chase was 
a great massacre. But his real pleasure was to force 
the deer. Parks of several thousand square miles 
were kept for this "hunt at force." The king would 
follow at a trot or gallop, for four, five or six hours, the 
dogs that tormented these animals. In the chase alone, 
he loved luxury. The keeping up of these parks cost 
him a considerable sum. His pack was chosen with 
great care, and better lodged than many of his subjects. 
The huntsmen had a well-fed look in their livery. He 
despised court ceremony, but it was strictly observed in 
the forest. When the deer was brought to cover, the 
Grand Master "gave him the death blow," detached the 
antlers and presented them to the king on a silver plat- 
ter. The view-halloo was sounded. As a sign of victory, 
the king and all his suite put a twig in their hats. Upon 
a car covered with branches the animal was taken in 
procession to the castle. According to the ancient cus- 
toms, the dogs then received their booty, "their right of 
the hunt," that is to say, the quarry. 

Things did not pass mo-re solemnly before the Em- 
peror, when he deigned to come in at the death, but I 



110 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

think that his Imperial Majesty did not give himself 
so much trouble for the hunt, nor did he so sharply 
taste of its pleasures. On winter days Frederick William 
rose at five o'clock, rode two or three leagues in an 
open carriage, and commenced the hunt at break of day. 
In the most disagreeable weather he would take a cold 
breakfast in the open air. His companions thought to 
warm themselves by drink. The king, rough and crusty 
as he was, enjoyed this play of primitive life. 

He w^as a great hunter and a great gourmand. Fred- 
erick William ate enormously. At table, as everywhere 
else, he wished the substantial and the solid. No 
2juffed-up things where there was "wind." Even in the 
soup he must have a good piece of veal, or a chicken, 
or a fish, to sharpen the appetite. As a good German, 
he was fond of liver and pork in all its forms. He 
often went to the kitchen to watch the head cook and 
teach him economy, to beat him if he wasted the but- 
ter, or if he stole in his accounts, but also to give him 
a few instructions. He put the finishing touches to his 
education when he dined out, or rather, at an inn, 
" The King of Portugal." One day, when he had eaten 
sojne good mutton tripe wdth cabbage, he returned with 
the recipe. He had a grateful stomach. He enjoyed 
a good soup at the house of Ilgen, one of his minis- 
ters: he wrote a note of thanks, and sent one of his 
cooks to learn from one of Ilgen's how to make a good 
bouillon, and to instruct his cook in return how to pre- 
pare fish. He assured this minister of his particular 
favor. "You can," said he, "make use of me when- 
ever you please." As just at that time there was a 



THE FATHER. Ill 

quarrel in the royal household, and Ilgen was on the 
queen's side, this dinner had the effect of reconciling, for 
awhile, the kino- and his wife. Aoaiu Frederick Will- 
iam was very kind and genial. A good dinner gave 
him nearly as much pleasure as a grand recruit. The 
Foreign Ministers knew this, and entertained him as 
well as they possibly could. Among other arguments 
against his colleague and Austrian rival, La Chetardie 
employed truffles with oil ; for the king did not disdain, 
after the heavier dishes, to indulge in certain delicacies 
such as truffles and oysters, provided there was a boun- 
tiful supply of them. He ate his hundred oysters. 
Only these good things were costly; they did not appear 
on the royal table except on grand occasions. The 
king, to reconcile his ideas of economy with his petty 
weaknesses, loved to make a good meal at the expense 
of others. He drank as he ate, without restraint, and 
paid even more attention to his cellar than to his cuisine. 
He did not like champagne, where there was "wind" 
and foam, but delighted in the strong wines of the 
Rhine and Hungary, that he ordered himself, with a 
thorough knowledge of the good vineyards and their 
good years. The dining never ended without some of 
the party being warmed up considerably. The king 
obliged his guests to drink excessively; it was one of 
the ways of making love to him, that of taking a little 
too much wine. ''^ 

At nightfall the king would hold one of his ''evening 
revels." In a bare hall, around a long, wooden table, 
were ranged seats of wood. He took his place at the 
upper end. The habitues and invited guests had their 



112 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

places marked : before them were a pitcher of beer, a 
glass, and a clay pipe in a wooden case. Upon the table 
were baskets filled with coarse tobacco, and some peat 
which burned in glass receptacles. Everybody had 
to drink and smoke, or appear to do so. Those 
to whom the tobacco was sickening had to hold 
in their hand an empty pipe, and puff at it now 
and then. After an hour or two they placed on 
the table bread, butter and cheese; upon the side-tables 
there was ham and cold veal. When the king had a 
distinguished visitor he would regale the company with 
a salad and fish; he would serve the fish and make the 
salad. On these evenings they drank Hungarian wine, 
and the conversation was prolonged far into the night. 
The king smoked incessantly. During one sitting of 
the "Tobacco Club," when the king was entertaining 
His Majesty, King Stanislas Lecszinski, the two royal 
majesties smoked more than thirty pipes. 

At table, as well as in his smoking apartments, the 
company was a strange one: generals, ministers, ofticers, 
foreign envoys, found themselves with buffoons and 
court- jesters. When they were at Wusterhausen, the 
schoolmaster would often come and smoke his pipe there 
in the evening; the king held him in great esteem, be- 
cause he had never been able to persuade the children of 
the village to cry with him: "Ou,r master is an ass !" 
The conversation would overstep all bounds. Even 
when they would have a "discourse," or a report, or 
perhaps a reading from the journals, the king, a man 
who made constant use of the interrogation point, 
would interrupt by questions, and the discussion would 



THE FATHER. 113 

begin. In the autumn of 1727 he had at his court a 
young Pietist pastor by the name of Fraucke. While 
at table, the points at issue were none but the most edi- 
fying, — salvation, sin, hell, purgatory, apparitions. The 
minister of the gospel had no time to eat, so harassed 
was he by the king's questions. He expressed himself 
with unction, for he had " breathed to God" a prayer, 
begging Him to guide his tongue; but Gundling was 
among the guests, and he arrived drunk. He made 
"astonishing gestures, arose from table and went fall- 
ing among the pages, returned, howled, and then went 
off again." The pastor prayed the Lord to be merciful, 
and prevent such like scandals !^^ However, the presence 
of the queen and princesses imposed a certain restric- 
tion. At the " ^a^rt^ie," they were men among men. 
The vulgar farces and brutality had their full sway, 
with a mixture of scriptural sayings and guardroom 
curses. The king gave free scope to his humor, sus- 
taining his rights upon the duchies, telling of his mor- 
tifications and his hopes, storming against the " qua- 
drille dancers," or perhaps talking of maneuvers or tac- 
tics, then returning to stories of the hunt or war, recol- 
lections of campaigns in the Netherlands and 
Pomerania. These subjects came up again and again, 
for Frederick William pertinaciously repeated. 

ACTS OF VIOLENCE, FOLLY AND DESPOTISM. 

At the hunt, at table, in his smoking apartments, and 
with the queen during their days of harmony or recon- 
ciliation, Frederick William passed the hap])iest hours 
of his life. These hours by no means formed the 



114 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

greater part of his passionate existence. The violent 
rages to which he would give vent showed only an 
abnormal state of his rude, coarse nature. No slave- 
trader, I imagine, distributed more blows with the stick 
than did this king. Not to mention his family trage- 
dies, there was not a class of his subjects, the officers 
excepted, that did not feel the touch of the royal cane. 
He Jbeat his domestics right and left. They relate 
the story at Berlin "that he had cabinets furnished with 
large sticks, placed at certain distances one from the 
other, to be more convenient, according to where he 
happened to be, so as to apply blows to those who ap- 
proached him and did not gratify his fancy." He gave 
a blow for an answer that did not content him, whether 
it was really bad, or so good that he could not reply to 
it. He met the brewer of Potsdam in the street: "Why 
do you sell your beer so dear?" said the king. "Because 
I am governed by the price of barley. If your Majesty 
will give me the permission to procure it at Stralsund, 
where it is cheaper, I will be able to lower my prices." 
Nothing more just; so the king, after having come to 
terms with the "Swede" brewer, gave him twenty blows 
with his cane. He struck him, by way of justice, to ex- 
ecute the sentence that he had pronounced himself in 
2yetto. A Jesuit, saying that he was converted to Protest- 
antism, but who nevertheless remained a Jesuit, being 
suspected of political intrigue, was arrested ; his 
papers were burned, however, and no proof could 
be found on him : the king Tiad an interview with 
this man in the wood, "and took the trouble to give 
him a volley of blows with his stick." One day a 



THE FATHER. 115 

sentence being rendered by a jury, was interruj)ted 
by his blows given on the shoulders and in the 
faces of the magistrates, who fled, gnashing their 
teeth, and he followed them even to the stairway. It is 
true, he did not beat his ministers, but many a time he 
had the desire to do it. Once, while dining, before 
twenty-five guests, among whom there were some of his 
ministers, he asked the Envoy of France: "If I beal 
one of my ministers will you send the information to 
France?" "I hope," answered Rottenberg, "that 
your Majesty will not put my discretion to such a test." '-' 
All the foreign residents, Frederick William's own 
ministers and the queen attributed these proceedings to 
a mental derangement, and expected any moment "to 
see the poor prince's head turned." In truth, traces of 
mania were not lacking in the series of anecdotes of 
this reign. To have a live fish scaled and oblige his 
guests to eat it in that condition ; to threaten his physi- 
cians "with imprisonment of the faculty" if they did 
not relieve him within a given time of some pimples 
on his tongue; to beat a doctor because he did not cure 
one of his little girls quick enough of smallpox; to 
take a walk through the city with his suite at ten 
o'clock at night, by the light of torches, crying and 
making them cry with the rest of the canaUle so 
vociferously that Sauveterre, "if he had not seen 
them with his own eyes, would have thought that 
they were animals being driven to market;" to 
ride out alone continually, and to fire at a miller who 
passed by him, these are truly fits of mania. The 
king, too, had these fits periodically. "Spring is a 



116 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

bad season for him," wrote Rottenburg. ''He rides 
out alone, as usual, when divine inspiration or rest- 
lessness for a change of place torments him. He fell, 
yhile going at a gallop. His horse gave him a kick 
in the head. He was saved by a forester." He often 
had moods of melancholy; for hours he would remain 
mute, "with great tears falling from his eyes." He 
had nocturnal terrors, and would leap suddenly from 
his bed, and go to awaken the queen, telling her 
"that he had thoughts and dreams so frightful 
that he could not sleep ; that he did not know 
where to go ; that it seemed that they followed him 
everywhere, and that they would kill him, accompany- 
ing these words with gestures and cries that showed 
plainly he was not himself." 

His spells of rage, when he would foam at the mouth, 
ended in fits of stupidity. He heard a preacher, 
in regard to a fire which had destroyed a portion of 
Berlin, hold forth upon the destruction of Jerusalem; 
he asked himself: "Is not the conflagration that has 
taken place in my capital a sign of the destruction 
of my people." Upon leaving church he fell into a 
revery, then came the "black melancholy." In these 
moments he would maltreat pitilessly those who ap- 
proached him. After this, from lassitude, he would 
fall back in his arm-chair, where he remained seated, 
with his elbows on the table, for two hours at a time, 
his eyes set, staring at each one who entered or left 
the room, without saying a word. ^^ 

For his wickedness and suffering Frederick William 
was, in part, responsible. He was the headsman of his 



THE FATHER, 117 

body; in Lis furious spells were recognized the effects 
of alcohol, but, as I have said, he was of a restless na- 
ture. He had in him, at birth, the disposition to tor- 
ment and render himself unhappy. The care of his 
affairs, the passion to do his work to the best of his 
ability, the sentiment of responsibility toward God and 
"the King of Prussia" troubled him, and partially ex- 
plains his excesses. Everybody noticed that, when 
affairs of state were going along smoothly, the king 
would also be better, and his temper would quiet down. 
He had his rages, from indigestion caused by oysters 
and cabbage. He had them on account of a certain 
regiment badly maneuvered, or because such a receiver 
had stolen, or that the "quadrille-dancers" had treated 
him like an errand-boy. 

Such a man could not be loved. The only sentiments 
that he inspired were dread and horror, mixed with 
some pity. The days that his stibjects lived, in his 
reign, were dark. He was, in the full sense of the 
word, a despot. "I will chastise you exemplarily, 
Russian fashion," said he. Russian fashion! In fact, 
he did resemble, in more than one trait, with less gen- 
ius, be it understood, his neighbor. Czar Peter, whom 
he strongly admired. Between these two men the prin- 
cipal difference was marked by longitude. Frederick 
William reigned at the extremity of the old, historic 
European region; but he was included within this 
reign, while the country of Peter, according to the ge- 
ography and politics of the time, was Asia. The King 
of 'Prussia was a part of Europe and the Holy Emi)ire : 
his subjects had the right of men; he was more civilized, 



118 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

more of a Christian, than the great barbarian; a Czar 
Peter, attenuated by race and surroundings. His orgies 
never reacked indecency. The queen had a hard life 
with him, but he never raised his hand to her. It was 
not the ax the royal hand wielded, but the stick; if, 
however, he submitted this Empire to a better and 
higher civilization, it was not without rebellion. In 
reality, he admitted no law that interfered with his 
supreme right: he was an autocrat. 

He had a horror of lawyers, "poor devils of jurists," 
and he held magistrates in contempt. One day he was 
requested to give employment to a young man. He 
wrote: "If he has intelligence and a good head, put 
him in the Chamber of Administration. If he is an 
imbecile, make a magistrate of him." There is in this 
sentiment, strange for a king to have, the rancor of a 
contestor who has lost many suits, for the judges often 
put the wrong on the agents of his domains. There is 
also in it a disdain for an obscure science, and old, un- 
decipherable parchments. But it seems to me well that 
Frederick William did not admit the interposition be- 
tween himself and subjects of a body of judges, nor 
the ways of justice. His incapability of disentangling 
an abstraction made him incarnate himself as justice. 
He was the judge in flesh and bones; he distributed 
justice personally, like the kings of primitive mon- 
archies, like St. Louis on the steps of the Sainte C/ki- 
pelle^ or at the foot of the oak at Vincennes, but not 
with a spirit of mercy or charity. If he corrected the 
judgments, it was to increase the punishment. He 



THE FATHER. . 119 

pronounced tnotu proprio imprisonment at Spandau and 
the penalty of death. 

Thus, no one felt safe from his will, his caprices, his 
fits of rage. In these crises, — when "out of respect to 
his crown, they could not compare him to a maniac 
with a razor in his hand," — everybody trembled, and 
committed their souls to God. Even the Foreign Min- 
isters were afraid. Once, — during, it is true, one 
of the greatest storms of passion that the king ever 
had, — the French Minister begged his government to 
make provision for his safety: "without which I will 
have a sorry time of it."'* Did not the king take it into 
his head at one time, upon hearing the news that some 
of his recruiters were arrested in Saxony and condemned 
to death, to send word to his minister resident there, 
that if one of these men were touched he would 
be hung ? Judge by this the terror of his subjects. 

And so they longed for the moment when they should 
be rid of him. Even his officers, whom he held under 
such terrible discipline, and whom he ruined by oblig- 
ing them to make recruits throughout Europe, detested 
him heartily. Forty of his big Grenadiers, exasperated 
by hard drills and bad treatment, laid a plot to set fire 
to the four corners of Potsdam, to roast him there and 
bury him in the ruins. The civil population were sub- 
jected to the sight of the corporals executing their 
order to recruit immediately forty supernumeraries for 
each company, "by arresting by main force in the 
streets and houses, wherever they could V)e found, even 
children of six years, whom the officers forced the fam- 
ilies to ransom. " 



120 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

Thus there is no house where there are no murmurs. 
' ' The people are greatly discontented. They hope 
and believe that this distress cannot endure always. 
,^here are all the appearances," wrote Rottenburg, 
"of a revolution. Everything is preparing for it." 
The king bitterly felt his unpopularity; he knew his 
death was desired, even near him, in his family, a thing 
which fairly enraged him. In one of his attacks a doc- 
tor made the remark "that it was not necessary for him 
to go every day to the parade." He answ^ered "that 
they would believe him dead if he did not go." He 
would have preferred really to be sick, provided that 
they believed him well, rather than be cured by giving 
the public the pleasure that he supposed his illness 
would give them.^^ 



From the public hatred, from his pain, sorrow and 
passion, Frederick William sought refuge in God. His 
faith was sincere, warm, expressive; it had great bursts of 
enthusiasm, but it was simple as well as practical. He 
wished no erudition, and became irritated with the dis- 
putes of the theologians. He mistreated the professors 
and preachers who resisted his desire to reconcile the 
Lutherans and Calvinists. "The diiference betw^een 
^our two evangelical religions is but a quarrel between 
priests," he said. "From the outside the difference is 
great, but when one looks into it well, one can see that 
the faith is the same upon all points, — upon salvation, 
and upon communion. Only, among the preachers, 
some make the sauce more bitter than others. Mav 



THE FATHER. 121 

God pardon all priests ! For they, who stir up ' seb^'ol- 
rats' to put at variance the true word of God, 
will have to render an account before His tribunal. 
The true pastors, those that say they must be toler- 
ant toward one another and apply themselves only to 
augmenting the glory of Christ, will be saved. For it 
will not be said (on judgment day): Art thou a Lu- 
theran or art thou a Reformer (Calvinist)? It will be 
said : Hast thou observed my commandments, or hast 
thou been a good Disputator f It Avill be said : To the 
fire or to the devil with the contentious ones; but, to 
those who have observed my commandments, come witl* 
me into my kingdom. May God be merciful to all ! 
May all his evangelical children observe his command- 
ments. As to those who cause disunion, may God send 
them to the devil." 

As much as the theological disputes, he hated vain 
eloquence, "oratorical expressions, artistic, allegorical, 
and flowery words . . . useless repetitions, diffuse 
explications of texts. . . ." Through an official 
order he forbade the use of rhetoric " by all preachers 
under the age of forty," those who were older than that 
being incapable of changing their habits. He prohib- 
ited their preaching more than an hour, under penalty 
of a fine of two thalers. An hour was enough "for 
a short and edifying explanation of the text, to find 
conclusions, and conclusions, too, that would touch 
the hearts of the congregation and convince them." 
The duty of the pastor was, "to awaken clear ideas in 
the understanding, and to incline the will to do right, 



122 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

not to show his art and erudition." It was to teach 
" active Christianity, — thcitiges Christe?ithu?n.^^''^ 

Frederick William meant by active Christianity, that 
which would be of service in practical life, such as he 
understood it. That which he called drawing conclu- 
sions from a text was, for example, to excite his 
Grenadiers to heroism, after their having heard the 
story of David killing Goliath, or of Benjamin, who, 
with a stick, felled an Egyptian armed cap-d-pie. Of 
the two Testaments, the old most properly applied 
to the king's service. Thus, his God was the God 
of Israel, the God of armies, who, in his anger, pun- 
ished for revenge. Frederick William must have been 
as sensible to the poetry of the Bible as he was to 
the music of Handel, and was moved by the singing 
of certain psalms; but his ear was deaf to the words of 
the gospel and to the mystic parables. If he had ever 
meditated upon the evangelical invitation to pious in- 
ertia and to the holy repose upon the bosom of the Sav- 
iour, he could not have repressed an interior protestation. 
The texts which speak of the birds of the air, nour- 
ished by the divine hand, and of the lilies clothed in 
splendor, though they spin not, appeared to him to have 
a dangerous application. If his eyes happened to fall 
upon the verses telling of Jesus' visit to Lazarus, he 
quickly turned the page, but not so quickly as not to give 
the right to Martha instead of Mary, for, had he been in 
the Saviour's place, he would have beaten Mary. And 
then, besides, he confessed he was powerless to compre- 
hend the charity of Christ. 

"You need not teach me," said he to Pastor Francke, 



THE FATHER. 123 

"that if one gives me a blow on one cheek I must i)re- 
sent the other, too." "The words of Christ are there," 
answered the pastor, "and cannot be changed." 
Francke explained, then, that the Saviour did not 
absolutely command you to turn the other cheek, and 
that He desired only to prevent individual vindica- 
tion. "Yes," replied the king, "we are in a ter- 
rible position; if we wish to let everything pass, we 
are taken for idlers and cowards; if we wish to 
avenge ourselves we run the risk of losing our souls 
or the souls of others. The question is, what to do?'' 
" I know well what I would do," said Francke. And 
the king added: "So do I. Thou wouldst say to one 
who attacked thee: My dear friend, I am pained to see 
you sin in this way. May God pardon you!" "Ex- 
actly," said Francke, "and what I could do, others 
could do." "Not I," retorted the king, " that does not 
apply to me ! ""^ 

It was not, then, the merciful God that Frederick 
William invoked in his short prayers or consulted in 
the long close intercourse. One' day he reproached 
Ilgen in such a violent manner, accusing him of 
partiality in regard to England, that the unhappy 
man began to cry, and finally fainted, which termi- 
nated the controversy. The king declared "that he 
was going to take a horseback ride, so that he could 
pray to God." He wandered about the fields alone for 
over four hours. " On his return he poured forth all \ 
the horrible invectives imaginable against England, ) 
saying that he would have full revenge." Rotten- 
burg, who recited the scene to Ilgen, ended witli these 



124 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

words : ' ' Time and modesty prevent me from repeat- 
ing the infamous and obscene language used in this 
discourse." 

The Christian whom God inspired with such anger 
could not find much comfort in his faith. So it was, 
even in his religion, Frederick William was restless, 
unsteady. He knew well that his duty was "to sj)read 
abroad the honor of God and the royalty of Jesus 
Christ." He wished his subjects to feel the word of 
God in their hearts as he did in his heart. But he was 
not contented with himself. "I am a wicked man," 
said he to Francke. " If I am good one day, I return 
to my wickedness the next." He feared for the salva- 
tion of his soul, and he was afraid of hell, afraid of the 
devil. "Ah! yes, the way to heaven is very hard,— 
f/a, es ist schwer in Himmel zu hotnynen ! '''' Difficult 
above all for a king, who was responsible not only for 
his own sins, but for those he allowed to be omitted or 
committed by others. This w^as the reason that, during 
his hours of melancholia, he spoke of abdicating: "I 
do not see any other way for my salvation, and I should 
like so much to be saved !"'^ He saw himself, then, re- 
tired to his palace at Wusterhausen, with ten thousand 
crowns a year. He shared with his w^ife and daughters 
the care of the housekeeping: "I will pray to God, 
and will have a care to the economy of the country." 

He seemed born, in fact, for this life of a country 
gentleman. He would have cultivated his ground raar- 
velously well ; he would have improved it each year, 
cleared the woods, drained the marshes, established a 
brewery or distillery, constructed new buildings, and 



THE FATHER. 125 

made sure of the sale of his products. He would have 
kept all hands under strict discipline, meddling with ev- 
erything, even to the laundry, kitchen and pantry. He 
would have been upon all backs at the same time, crying 
out, scolding, and giving blows. He would have been 
the most ardent hunter among the Junker of Branden- 
burg. He would have been at the head of the largest 
eaters and strongest drinkers, at a carousal or intem- 
perate repast, d la Pantagruel. In the evening he would 
have smoked his pipe with his people and neighbors, 
discussed at length upon the subjects of sowing grain, 
fertilizing the ground, upon the hunt, comparing the 
merits of wine and beer, and arguing upon grace and 
original sin. He would have prayed to God with his 
family and domestics, and then alone, asking him in all 
simplicity to spare his harvests from hail, and reserve 
it for the fields of others. He would have sung the 
psalms in church and at home, and found in the Bible 
applications of active Christianity for his intendants and 
domestics. He would have economized with his ten 
thousand crowns, and added to this economy the annual 
surplus of his farm, for each year he would have pro- 
duced ehi 2^lu8. He would have at last slept in the 
arms of the Saviour, leaving to his heir the finest estate 
in the country, and a nice pile of gold in order to make 
it still more valuable, to buy such and such a domain 
that he desired, or to gain a lawsuit that he had always 
wished to engage in against such and such a one, with- 
out daring to do so, because he invariably mistrusted 
judges and justice, and tlie fear of losing it had calniod 
his passion for gain. 



126 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

Upon the throne, Frederick William was this 
gentleman farmer. He governed his kingdom like a 
proprietor his estate. Instead of acres, there were 
thousands and thousands of squares that he cleared 
or drained. Instead of barns and stables, he built 
cities. King, instead of an ordinary individual, the ob- 
jects of his activity were on a larger scale, as well as 
his good qualities and his defects, his good and bad 
passions, his joys and sorrows. But he it is who was 
always on the scene of action, and with all his indi- 
viduality, his strange personality. His strong, clear 
intellect, whenever it was applied to things that he 
knew, and over which he had direct authority, was 
capable of seeing all the details, each one separately, but 
also in its place in the whole. He was fond of the real, 
the visible, the tangible; a contemner of everything 
luxurious and ideal. Always occupied in regulations, 
he was fully satisfied in the contemplation of a model 
regiment, where everything was in its place, battalions, 
companies, sections, men, and upon each man each piece 
of uniform and arms; where the motion of the individ- 
ual was but a portion of the whole movement; where all 
the attention was fixed on the number of steps desired. 

Like a regiment, the king maneuvered agriculture, 
industry, and religion ; but he was troubled by the 
slightest resistance to classification and placing in the 
ranks. He did not know how to find the true mode of 
relationship to exterior powers. At the least hitch he 
would lose patience, mourn over it, and suffer. Then 
he would divert himself by the grotesque, by carica- 
ture, and by a certain taste for drollery which reached 



THE FATHEE. 127 

the fantastic, or he would solace himself through anger, 
or by orgies, or perhaps, at last, make his i)rayers to 
God, lay his griefs before his Maker. In these few 
moments he was sincere, honest and frank, having 
neither the power over himself to dissimulate, nor the 
time to arrange his lies. His contempt for ceremony, 
his distaste for vain show, were his princely virtues; he 
went straight to the fact, the real. His application and 
activity were of such intensity that they penetrated the 
men and, the countries over which they were exercised, 
and created -a force that was marked with his impress.- 
The Prussia of bureaus and barracks, devoted to the 
God of armies, stubbornly at work, proud of herself 
even to boastfulness, disciplined even to servitude, is 
truly the one that Frederick William reared in sorrow 
and affliction. 



CHAPTER III. 

THE CONFLICT BETWEEN FATHER AND SON FIRST SYMP- 
TOMS AND CAUSES OF CONFLICT. 

In the month of March, 1724, Frederick William 
and his son honored with their presence a fete given 
by General von Grumbkow, one of the principal minis- 
ters of the Court of Prussia. The king suddenly said, 
pointing to the Crown Prince: "I should like to know 
what is passing in this little head. I know his ideas 
are not the same as my own, — class er nicht so denkt vne 
ich ; there are people who give him other sentiments 
than mine, and excite him to blame everything ; they 
are rascals." He repeated the word, and, addressing 
his son, said: "Fritz, listen to what I am going to 
say to thee. Keep always a good, large army; thou 
canst not have a better friend, and, without this friend, 
thou wilt not be able to sustain thyself. Our neigh- 
bors desire nothing better t^han to make us turn a 
somersault. I know their intentious; thou wilt learn 
to know them. Believe me,- do not trust in vanity; 
attach thyself to the real, — halts dich an das Heelle. 
Have thou a good army and money. In these consist 
the glory and the security of a prince." Saying this, 
he gave Fritz some little taps on the cheek, which 
became harder and harder, and finally resembled blows. '^^ 

At the time of this first open disagreement between 



FATHER AND SON. 121> 

fatlier and son, the Crown Prince was twelve years old. 
The misunderstanding was already complete and well 
known. The foreign ministers informed their courts, 
and in their dispatches commented upon the king's 
words. The prince's nature could not support the tax 
upon his strength that his father imposed. Frederick 
William tired and harassed him so much that the child 
had an old look, as though he had been through many 
campaigns, and walked with his back curved. The 
king wished to accustom him to hardships; every mark 
of weakness or delicateness enraged him. He had a ter- 
rible scene with his son for wearing gloves at the 
hunt on a bitter cold day. Another time he designated 
a horse that Fritz should ride; the equerry ventured to 
remark that the animal was hard-mouthed; the king 
pushed him off and ordered him to keep quiet; but, on 
leaving Potsdam, a gust of wind blew His Majesty's 
hat off, which made the prince's hoi*se run away; he had 
the presence of mind to take his feet from the stirrups 
and throw himself to the ground. He injured his 
knees, hip and neck. The guard of his sword so hurt 
his side that he spat blood. On their return the queen 
became excited ; she groaned and cried. The king was 
exasperated about it; he ordered his son to appear the 
next day at /mount of guard. The wounded prince 
was actually there, unable to have hi<5 arm in the 
sleeve of his jacket. 

The prince had a decided taste for elegance and mag- 
nificence, and all the luxuries of life. He had but few 
means of gratifying this propensity, but he did what 
he could. He did not like to eat with a two-pronged 



130 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

steel fork, which was in use in the inns throughout 
Germany, and resembled a defensive weapon. The 
king surprised him one day, eating with a three-pronged 
silver fork He beat him.^^ 

If some fairy had permitted Frederick William to 
make three wishes at the birth of his son, he would 
have expressed them without a moment's hesitation : 
"May my son be a good economist, soldier and Chris- 
tian." But Fritz was not given to economy. The king 
wished that the prince should keep an "account of his 
ducats," as he formerly did, with an exactitude that 
made his mother despair and become alarmed to see 
him a "miser at so tender an age," but Fritz left this 
commission to others. He did not wish to learn how 
"to manage his money. "^^ Moreover, he was unselfish, 
liberal and charitable. In a journey that he made while 
stopping at Magdeburg for the first time, he was offered 
the customary present that the city owed to the heir-ap- 
parent, he refused it. Forced by his father to accept 
the gift, he declared he would keep it until his acces- 
sion, and then distribute it among the poor inhabitants 
oppressed with heavy taxes. In passing through the 
city of Stassfurt, they wished to "honor him with two 
hundred ducats:" he ordered it to be given to the 
poor, and forbade his tutors to breathe a word of this 
generosity to the king.^- 

Fritz did not like military men. He found them 
coarse and ridiculous, and preferred to their company 
"men who knew something." He^ played tricks on 
the generals. He dined one day in Westphalia, with 
the king, at the Castle of Rosendaal, the estate of Gen- 



FATHER AND SON. 131 

eral von der Mosel. After dinner they were going on 
a hunt. The oUl general, who drank a little more 
than was reasonable in order to honor his guests, tried 
to mount the saddle, but the prince had made his stir- 
rups too short, and looked on at the scene very much 
amused,"^ Now, the king was exceedingly fond of 
jokes, but they were only to be played on scholars and 
professors. 

Would Fritz continue to be a good Christian ? At 
the end of his visit to Wusterhausen Professor Francke 
was very uneasy on this subject. It was to him alone, 
in the inidst of the general attention, that Frederick 
did not address a word. "One would think," wrote 
the poor man in his journal, "that he Avas angry about 
something." At last, Frederick called him on the fifth 
day ; but he received his compliments with a bad 
grace, and only said a few words to him. Francke 
awaited an expression of thanks for the highly edify- 
ing tracts that he had sent to the prince: it was the 
tutor Avho thanked him, and with that Frederick left 
the room. The next day, at table, the king not being 
there, the pastor perceived that the prince, during a 
conversation upon apparitions, looked at him with a 
mocking air. As he was rising from the table, he 
heard him say quite loud: "There goes one who 
believes in glioses." He learned that the evening be- 
fore, the Castellan of Wusterhausen, a remarkably 
devout man, met the prince, who asked him where he 
was taking the light he held in his hand: "Your 
Highness, to Professor Francke," he responded. 
"ThsD," said the prince, "it is a pharisee going to 



132 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

a. pharisee, for he is one as well as you." The 
troubled pastor made a resolve to pray to God for 
the heir-apparent. And truly, Fritz had certainly great 
need to be prayed for.^* He had "a natural tendency 
toward all sciences," but he neglected sacred science. 
He was to receive confirmation in April, 1727 ; he 
was confirmed then, but to be prepared for this cere- 
mony the pastor had to give him double the amount 
of lessons. His tutors had to acknowledge to the king 
that he had neglected religious instruction for six 
monthSo^^ 

Neither economist, soldier, nor devotee, this son 
must have troubled the very inmost depths of the soul 
of the father whom we know. It would have been a 
miracle, if Frederick William had not allowed himself 
to give vent to his terrible temper against him. He 
commenced by little taps which soon resembled blows ; 
then the real blows followed. He struck Fritz be- 
cause of the gloves he wore at the hunt ; he struck 
him for the three-pronged fork. As he was very 
prompt to act, and carried everything to extremes, he 
immediately gave up all hope in regard to his son. 
The child to whom he tendered a kind of fraternal 
affection, true respect, and absolute confidence, the 
little Frederick, — Fritzen, — appeared to him to be a 
rebel, and a very dangerous one. The French Minis- 
ter, giving notice of "the alienation of the king and 
prince," feared "that it might go far."^*^ Already, the 
king was comparing the elder revolting son to the 
younger one, William. He showed toward him all 
the tenderness of which he was capable. At table, he 



FATHER AND SON. ^ 133 

made liim say grace, and stood with his head bowed 
and hands joined, behind the chair of the little fellow. 
If he was suffering, he would go to see him and 
cover him with kisses; he would stop when he met the 
child, raise him in his arms and kiss him for some 
minutes at a time. He would say: "I will not 
wager much on such and such of my children, but 
(pointing to little William) I have confidence in tlris 
one ; he has a good character ; I will guarantee that 
he will be an honest man."^^ It is i3ermissible to be- 
lieve that even at that date, three years before the* 
tragic crisis, Frederick William could not keep from 
thinking that the Kingdom of Prussia would be well 
placed in the hands of this younger son, who promised 
to be an honest man. As to the eldest, he could no 
longer bear the sight of him. Then the family l^fe 
became intolerable : a kind of terror hung over the 
royal house ; the queen cried every day. The prince's 
face was painful to see; everybody noticed the "black 
melancholy" in his great eyes. He confessed it to 
his friends, and letters from him express distaste of 
life. He made excuses to a sick friend, Lieutenant 
von Borcke, for not trying to divert him: "I have 
rather need of some diversion myself to rid me of 
this melancholia" ; he beo^sed him not to die, savins: : 
"Death is a thing I fear the most for my friends, 
but the least for myself. "^^ 

At the Court and throughout the kingdom, public 
opinion expressed itself against the king, for the in- 
teresting victim. It truly seemed that the })rin('c had 
committed no other crime than that of failinir to re- 



134 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

semble his father. We cannot blame him for pre- 
ferring a silver fork to one of steel ; for wearing 
gloves when it was freezing cold ; for being liberal ; 
or even for mocking an old drunken general and a 
pastor who believed in ghosts ; nor for the excellent 
taste he evinced, "of being interested in the sciences 
and liking to talk with those who knew something." 
This prosaic father who wished to bury a child of 
twelve years in practicalities, to whom he denied the 
right of admiring or loving anything outside of mili- 
tary life and economy, — this brutal man who railed 
and struck about him with little or no reason for it, 
had the appearance of being a cruel nianiac, an abom- 
inable tyrant. But, to be just, and to give to each 
the exact responsibility due him in the approaching 
denouement, conclusions must not be so quickly 
drawn. 

First of all, look '^around the father and son, study 
Frederick's surroundings as he grew to manhood, the 
influences at work, then scrutinize his actions, ques- 
tion his intentions, discover, as soon as it presents 
itself, his youthful individuality, which is not so 
simple as that of his father. "There are some," said 
the king, "who give him other sentiments besides my 
own." Who are these people? 

We already know that, without meaning to do so, 
Frederick's masters inspired him with ideas and modes 
of thought entirely contrary to those of the king. 
The nature of the child lent itself freely to their in- 
fluence ; and in receiving it, he followed an instinct. 
Of his own will,' he added to the permitted reading, 



FATHER AND SON. 185 

the forbidden reading. His mind thus accustomed 
itself to living in a different world from that he saw 
around him. There was no personage in TtlemacJius 
to whom Frederick William could be compared, neither 
was there any one in the romances of chivalry. All 
the drinkers, smokers, and sword-dragging men of 
Berlin and Potsdam were particularly coarse after the 
ancient sages, and adventurous, gallant, chevaliers. 
But Frederick had not received his education from 
tutors only; it now remains to place near the masters,' 
in their quality of educators and inspirers of the 
Crown Prince, two persons whom he loved and who 
were tenderly devoted to him, the queen and the oldest 
princess, Wilhelmina. 

THE MOTHER OF FREDERICK. V 

Queen Sophia Dorothea was an imposing person. 
She was large and strong ; her form which had been 
"one of the handsomest in the world" had rapidly 
grown stout, and the arm-chairs had to be enlarged 
for her. She had a noble and majestic carriage. Her 
face was not beautiful. Her features were strongly 
marked, and not one of them was perfect. She knew 
how to be affable, agreeable, unaffected, but her whole 
physiognomy showed her pride in being queen and 
born of the House of Hanover. She had the germs 
of intellectual qualities: "a brilliant inind, which 
seemed however to possess more solidity than it did 
in reality," a taste for the arts and sciences to which 
her attention was not " too assiduously given." Her 
ruling passion was ambition. ^'^ 



136 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

She would have liked to figure in every way as 
a great queen, first of all, to be well dressed, as 
at the time, when a young girl, she shone in the 
luxurious and elegant Court of Hanover, that prided 
itself upon being extremely polished. Her trous- 
seau had been ordered from the best establish- 
ment in Paris. The Duchess of Orleans had 
superintended the making, and Louis XIV., who 
condescended to look at these pretty things, ex- 
pressed the hope that there would be many princes in 
Germany able to enrich in this way the merchants of 
his capital. No doubt, the queen would have been 
greatly pleased to order her gowns from Paris. It 
would have pleased her still more to be royally lodged, 
with graceful bibelots around her, like those the elegant 
world of the eighteenth century loved. She had such 
a pretty house built in the suburbs of Berlin, on the 
Spree, with a gallery filled with exquisite porcelains 
and rooms decorated with mirrors, that it was called 
Monbijou; but this place was contracted, and the queen 
passed but a small part of her life in this Trianon. 
As she was' "accustomed to the world," she would 
have wished to preside at a court, where ceremonials 
would have marked her royal dignity, at balls where 
hundreds of couples would have inclined before her; at 
the card-table, where she would have played, with much 
gold, the queen's game. She would have given concerts 
of fine music, and held a circle of literati, with whom 
she would have conversed in French, — the only lan- 
guage suitable for such a company. '^^ 

Unhappily, what the queen loved, the king detested, 



'FATHER AND SON. 137 

and Sophia Dorothea had, as they said, a vcM-y sad 
lot. Her husband had a horror of the French fasliions, 
and went so far as to make the condemned, "those that 
were the greatest criminals," wear the gallooned hats 
and the bags for the hair, so that he might give Ber- 
lin people a distaste for imitating the French Minister, 
who decked himself out in all this beautiful finery. 
He himself set the example of simplicity. After hav- 
ing first assumed the costume of a good citizen, he 
afterward wore that of a colonel, and never changed it. 
He took the greatest care of his clothes ; as soon as he 
returned to his cabinet he would put on sleeves and an 
apron. He made the queen many a rich present, but 
he wished that his wife should be simply dressed, as be- 
came a German woman. He knew very well that he 
could not live as a private individual, and that he 
must do honor to the King of Prussia; so he bought 
vessels of gold and silver, candlesticks of silver and 
crystal, silver tables and arm-chairs. He was very 
proud of this furniture, that he ordered himself, and 
which cost him a good, round sum, thinking besides, 
no doubt, that it was not all lost, the metal was there, 
in case of need. But these beautiful 'things were only 
for state occasions; he liked neither palaces nor luxu- 
rious furniture. Of all his residences, those he pre- 
ferred the most were his huntino^ lodges. For his own 
personal use he had chairs and arm-chairs of wood. 
He was not a giver of feasts; the ball that he liked the 
best was, I think, that of the fete of the Anniversary of 
Malplaquet. After the dinner, during wliich tlie hunt- 
ing horns and Jiautbois were heard, and the healths 



138 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

were accompanied with salvos of cannon, the queen and 
princesses would retire. Then the men would dance 
among themselves. The king would take by the hand 
an officer, making his choice from one of the survivors 
of Malplaquet, Pannewitz, for instance, who had re- 
ceived a fine gash on the head that warm day;^^ but the 
cold, ceremonious court ball he could not endure. He 
did not like the queen to hold a court every evening, 
and Sophia Dorothea was never at ease except during his 
absences, which were, fortunately, frequent enough. 
Yet, with this terrible man, she was always dreading a 
surprise. One evening the king arrived from a jour- 
ney through Prussia, as usual, without being expected. 
There was a ball at Monbijou : in a rage, he left for 
Potsdam, without seeing his wife or children. 

The visits of princes — provided that Czar Peter 
was not the guest, for he stayed at Monbijou, and 
made it "the desolation of Jerusalem" — gave Sophia 
Dorothea a few happy days. The latter part of May, 
1728, she passed a very pleasant week, during the 
visit of the King of Poland to Berlin. When Augus- 
tus II. paid his respects to her, she received him at 
the door of her third ante-chamber. He extended his 
hand and together they went into her audience cham- 
ber, where the princesses were presented. "An affable, 
polished air, accompanied these ceremonies." As he 
could not remain standing, for he was worn out with 
his debaucheries, "the queen offered immediately to 
seat him, a thing to which he would not consent at 
first, but finally he placed himself on a stool, the 
queen taking another opposite him." As the princesses 



FATHER AND SON. ' 139 

remained standing, the king made " many excuses to 
them for his impoliteness." He said "something agree- 
able to each one," and when he arose, he would not 
suifer the queen to reconduct him. The next Sunday, 
there was a solemn presentation in the grand apart- 
ments of the castle. The queen advanced from one 
side of the gallery, with her daughters, the princesses 
of the blood, and her Court, while the two kings 
came from the other. All the ladies of the city 
splendidly apparelled were standing in file. By the 
side of the king and the three hundred persons of his 
suite, the nobles of Poland and Saxony clothed lav- 
ishly, magnificently, Frederick William and the Prus- 
sians made a poor show, "with their coats so short 
they could not even have served as a fig leaf for 
our first parents, and so tight that they could not 
move. Their hair was powdered but not cuiled, and 
twisted in the back with a ribbon." Notwithstanding 
all this, the ceremony of presentation was brilliant. 
Since the late king, there never had been "such an 
array at the castle." For several days the fetes con- 
tinued : there were not only innumerable parades, and 
reviews, but also dinners " at a round table," or at a 
table of an odd shape, arranged in such a manner 
that the guests represented letters or objects. Every 
evening the queen held court and they danced. Dur- 
ing these days of pleasure the Queen of Prussia felt 
that she really reigned. ■'- 

These were times of rare good fortune; to entertain 
a guest who knew how to give his hand to a lady, to 
make excuses for being seated in her presence, and to 



140 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

find something agreeable to say without any trouble. 
After the departure of the visitor and his suite they 
returned to their life of mere existence, and even had 
to pay for the expense of the visit. Four days before 
the King of Poland took leave the King of Prussia had 
given the order "to economize as much as possible;" 
he reduced the daily expenses from ninety-three thalers 
to seventy or seventy-two, when he was at Wuster- 
hausen, and the queen at Berlin; to fifty-five when 
their Majesties w^ere together. He interdicted ship- 
ments from Hamburg, whence came the delicacies of 
the table, and charged them not to fail in serving him 
only with ' ' good beef, good fat chickens, and other 
like things." '' 

This economy was great torture to the queen. To 
gain the least point from her husband on this subject 
was a thing not to be considered. It was useless to 
speak to him of the liberalities and largesses of other 
princes, of the luxurious Court of England, for example; 
he was a poor king, and would say: "We others, we 
kings in trust, must not stretch the cover longer than it 
is." The queen had then to be content with eighty 
thousand thalers a year, from which she had to deduct 
the expense of clothes and linen for the family, which 
was a large one. She was always short of money. It 
often happened that she expressed her sympathy in 
good works, by good words, and often excused herself, 
as she did with Francke, "for not having her change 
with her." She would run into debt, and did not know 
how to get out of it. Thus she would speak with a 
sigh of envy of other happier women, to whom nothing 



f 

FATHER AND SON. 141 

was lacking: "When you have a contented spirit," 
she said, '^and everything is bright around you, your 
ideas are very different from tho'se you have when you 
are always under oppression." ^^ 

It was absolutely necessary for her to bend to all the 
habits of her husband. She submitted to the conver- 
sations at dinner, the eternal repetition of affairs, the 
coarse jokes, and the spectacle of the daily drinking. 
Oftener than she liked she was present at the reviews: 
admiration for the military was, for her, obligatory. 
At Wusterhausen she was disturbed by the confusion 
of the chase. There was no stated hour for dinner; 
the cook had to have it ready to serve in twenty min- 
utes after the king had given the order to put it on the 
table. This might be at nine, twelve or three o'clock. 
So as not to be surprised, the queen ordered one of her 
domestics to be always on the watch, and give notice 
of the king's movements. She knew his order as soon 
as he gave it. Then her heavy, corpulent body would 
bestir itself: she would move about quickly and dress 
in great haste. ^•' 

She suffered from her husband's angry moods; he 
would abuse her when there was some trouble in his 
state affairs, or when he imagined he had cause for 
jealousy, making terrible scenes, then, suddenly, would 
reinstate himself with effusions of tenderness in abrupt 
interviews. The queen would scold him, and predict 
that he would "besfin asjain soon," a thino- he never 
failed to do. 

Sophia Dorothea would have liked to play her role 
in politics. When she presided at table, in the absence 



142 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

of the king, Europe was the subject of conversation. 
The queen had resolved to satisfy "the pride and 
haughtiness of the House of Hanover" through the 
marriage of her children. We will see presently the 
history of her projects of marriage, which were the 
source of Sophia Dorothea's greatest sorrow. It will 
suffice to remark here that this pretension to be a 
woman of state, added to the rest, was but a new cause 
for conflicts with the king. Thus this honest household, 
Avhich gave to the corrupted Courts of Germany and 
Europe such a fine example, did not agree upon any- 
thing. The queen had been all her life, or nearly so, 
discontented. As she had no solidity of character, no 
constancy, unless it was her fixed passion — ambition; 
and, to sum up, a's she was not clever in making friends 
and in meriting sympathy and devotion, she was like an 
isolated being at the Court of Prussia; she detested it, 
and saw only enemies there. At an early hour she be- 
gan looking toward the future, to the time when "the 
king would be missing," and she would enjoy the pleas- 
ure of living as she pleased, — of being queen. 

While waiting, she took charge of her children, pre- 
tended that they belonged to her alone, and, young as 
they were, inspired them with her rare affections and 
her numerous antipathies. 

THE ELDEST SISTER. 

Wilhelmina, her eldest daughter, is made known to 
us through her own " Jfemoirs." This historical docu- 
ment is distrusted, and not without cause. The writer 
has taken a flagrant delight in making erroneous state- 



FATHER AND SON. 143 

ments, which were very far from being all involuntary. 
Discontented with her lot, that of the rank of a wife of 
a petty prince, (she thought four different times that she 
was to marry a king,) but half-way happy in her do- 
mestic relations, tormented by the nostalgia of the 
greatness nearly possessed, philosopher in spite of her- 
self, she took revenge in more than one way for her dis- 
appointments, through malicious means; without count- 
ing what she did in imitative literature, while attemi)t- 
ing to govern her writing by that of Mile, de Mont- 
pensier, — she lost the power of expressing real truth. 
But we must not take away from the Memoirs of the 
Margravine all their historical value. Upon many 
points her testimony has been confirmed by others. 
She had a remarkable faculty of seeing persons and 
things, and painting what she saw. Her natural malig- 
nity added to the truth while she observed, added still 
more while she wrote, "so that it is prudent," says 
Carlyle, "to take from the whole twenty-five per cent, 
if you wish to have the exact statement; " but the ques- 
tion is here, only to interrogate Wilhelmina about her- 
self : she reveals her personality in her "Memoirs" 
with more truthfulness than she imagined. ^*^ 

She was very precocious. She could barely remember 
her grandfather, but she could recall amusing him with 
her mimicry, the good prince passing whole days in 
this amusement. She was vain of this infantine vivacity, 
that attracted the notice of everybody. She certaijily 
possessed, as she said, a great facility for learning, and 
a wonderful memory. She was the pupil of La Croze 
and many other masters to whom she did honor. She 



144: FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

spoke English, Italian and the French language better 
than Frederick ever did, in whom, at least in his 
youthful writings, is observed a foreign accent. She 
was extremely refined, "a refined mouth," as Frederick 
said later. At eight years old she knew well how to 
take notice of things around her. The description she 
gave of the visit of Czar Peter to Berlin in 1718, must 
have been the exact account of her impressions.^' She 
saw the Czar arrive, extend his hand to the king, and 
say: "I am very glad to see you, Frederick, my 
brother;" the queen repulsed this great barbarian when 
he wished to embrace her; the Czarina kissed the hand 
of the queen, and presented to her the four hundred 
so-called ladies of her suite, — maidservants, cooks, 
washerwomen, nearly every one of whom carried a 
child, richly dressed, upon her arm. She gave a faithful 
description of the Czarina — "short, thick and very 
swarthy," without an air nor a grace: "Her dress had 
been bought second-hand ; and it was old-style, trimmed 
lavishly with silver, and it was very dirty. The front 
of her bodice was loaded with precious stones. She 
had a dozen Orders, and as m^an}> portraits of saints, 
and relies attached to the whole length of the edge of 
her coat, in such a way that when she walked one would 
imagine that one heard a mule. . ." This stvle of ex- 
pression, and this wa}' of telling it, Wilhelmina found 
later, when she became a writer, but the little girl had 
certainly seen the old clothes, the dirt, the Orders, and 
recognized also the jingling bells of a mule. 

She was extremely coquettish, always wishing to 
please, on all occasions seeking to make conquests. She 



FATHER AND SON. 145 

won at once the Czar's admiration. She had learned 
the lesson well that had been taught her, to speak of 
his fleet and his victories in such a tone that the great 
man said to the Czarina that he would willingly give up 
one of his provinces for a child like that. She amused 
him very much by struggling against his rude kisses: 
"You will dishonor me! "she cried. 

Wilhelmina was not to be trusted. She charmed her 
grandfather, George I., and his English suite, by her fine 
manners and by speaking their language to them. She 
astonished the Polish guests, whose names she studied 
to pronounce smoothly. She made an impression upon 
Pastor Francke, and asked this worthy man to send her 
as a souvenir some pious books. But in her '-'- Me- 
moirs " she made fun of all her visitors, even her grand- 
father. King George, and she called the pastor "that 
dog of a Francke I " 

She excelled in mimicry and contortion, and prac- 
ticed to perfection the^art of fainting. She would fall 
back in her chair, saying, "I am dying," and counter- 
feit death so well for an hour that they would send for 
a physician. She took good care to recover her senses 
before his arrival, and get to bed, where she had hid- 
den beforehand some pieces of heated turpentine: "her 
biirning red hands," she said, "made every one believe 
that she had a high fever and hot flushes." She had so 
much control over herself that even at table, when 
there was a question of her marriage and of her per- 
sonal interests, at the time of the most vehement quar- 
rels of the family, she appeared as trancpiil as if they 
were talkinir of the Grand Turk.'"* 



ltl:6 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

In spite of herself, however, she allowed her pride 
of birth to be seen, and she was very haughty, with 
her philosophical airs. We must acknowledge that 
Wilhelmina painted by herself is a little personage 
who has some s^rave defects, as well as small ones. 



MOTHER, DAUGHTER, AXD SOX. 

Let us now return to Frederick. Up to the age of 
seven he lived with his mother and sister. His big 
sister made him study with her, and together they 
played and chatted. Even after Fritz had been placed 
under the authority of tutors, he saw the queen and 
Wilhelmina oftener than the king. The queen boasted 
of the education of her son as though it were her per- 
sonal work. She loved him dearly: Fritz is perhaps 
the only being that she ever loved. She suffered from 
the bad treatment which the child received ; she tried to 
defend him, and put herself between him and the king. 
As to the reciprocal affection of brother and sister, 
during the years of their youth it was warm and sin- 
cere. "Never," said Wilhelmina, "did tenderness equal 
ours. " 

The mother and sister influenced Frederick in not 
loving his father. A child like Fritz read his mother's 
sentiments in her face, whether she spoke or not. And 
the queen talked a great deal ; oftener, to make com- 
plaints. It was not only Wilhelmina, but also the For- 
eign Ministers, who attested that her conversation was a 
continual lamentation. Is it true that she made a chief 
confidante of her dausfhter; that she imaQ;ined, in her 
"mortal agony," that she could find "consolation" in 



FATHER AND SON. 147 

this child ; that she first tried her discretion so as to 
finally confide her sorrows to her; that she named over all 
her enemies to this daughter, and they comprised "three- 
fourths of Berlin;" that she initiated her in all the 
cabals of the court ; that she accustomed her to hatred 
and dissimulation ; that she gave her matter to con- 
template "through much reflection and sad things;" 
and that in the end she placed herself in such a light 
that this young girl wondered if she were not deceiv- 
ing her, and if she were really her mother? For my 
part, I believe that if there are such grave exaggerations 
in these pages of the Memoirs against the queen, there 
is some truth at the bottom of it. 

At any rate, the children saw clearly that, on all sub- 
jects, their mother "thought otherwise" than the king. 
They j^erceived that when the master was absent the 
mistress gave another tone to the house. They had, 
through the queen, a totally different idea of life from 
the one that they led; where they would have been better 
clothed and lodged, where they could have eaten more 
delicate nourishment with silver forks, and would have 
been treated as king's children. The haughtiness al- 
ready visible in Wilhelmina, and which we soon dis- 
cover in Fritz, is "the pride of the House of Hanover," 
that was inherited from their m )ther. 

It was evident that the queen obliged her children, 
in choosing between father and mother, to take her. 
Wilhelmina relates a curious scene. She had just 
passed through a series of illnesses, dysentery, jaun- 
dice and purple fever, and came near losing her life; 
the king and queen had even given her, through much 



148 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

shedding of tears, their benediction. The king, happy 
at her convalescence, gave her permission to ask a 
favor; she begged to put aside her child's dress: the 
wish was instantly granted, and a few days afterward, 
madame, the little royal princess, tried on her first 
gown with a train. "I posed before my mirror, and 
I did not think I looked indifferent in my new gar- 
ment. I studied all my gestures and carriage, so as to 
have the air of a grand personage. In a word,. I was 
well content with my little form. I descended trium- 
phantly to the queen's apartments. Alas! As soon 
as the queen perceived me from afar, she cried : 'Ah ! 
Mon Dleu, how she is gotten up ! Keally, this is a 
pretty figure ! She is as much like a midget as two 
drops of water'!" Wilhelmina's vanity was greatly 
offended by this, but the queen soon instructed her in 
the moral of this little incident: "she told me that she 
had given me the order to attach myself only to her, 
and that, if ever I addressed myself to the king again 
for anything whatsover, she promised to pour out her 
wrath upon me." ^^ The scene is certainly true. Perhaps 
it would be best to deduct from the proposed proceed- 
ings of the queen twenty-five per cent, but we shall pres- 
ently see Sophia Dorothea conducting herself as though 
these children belonged solely to her. 

Let us bring before us now, in this court, the inti- 
macy of the brother and sister. As we have said, their 
faces were alike; their inclinations also. They had the 
same tastes and the same repugnances. They were 
pretty, delicate, and malicious. Wilbelmina acted the 
big sister, the important one; she gave advice, for ex- 



FATHER AND SON. 149 

ample, in the suggestion of the forbidden readings. 
They sought each other as often as possible, so as to 
talk incessantly. Of what did they converse, if not of 
the king, the queen, of what they saw and heard? The 
little brother was the tale-bearer, and the big sister had 
no secrets from him. The Memoirs of Wilhelmina 
give us the subjects of their conversations; they were 
not good. First came the improper stories about the do- 
mestics; of the brutal Eversmann, the Chamberlain-jani- 
tor of the Castle of Berlin, and the chamber-maids, that 
made it their business to spy. Then came the wicked 
doings of Letti; this demoiselle of the princess' suite, 
a spy also, w^ho beat her young mistress and "regaled 
herself every evening," and prevented Wilhelmina from 
sleeping "by snoring like a trooper," and who received 
respect from the whole court, through her scheming 
nature; from the queen's ladies-in-w^aiting, Sonsfeld, 
whom she called a silly fool, Kamken, whom she called 
a big cow, to the queen herself, whom she mentioned, in 
speaking of her to her daughter, as a great simpleton. 
A fine lady-companion, that the janitor, whom she had 
abused for neglecting his sweeping, denounced as re- 
ceiving men! 

The brother and sister attacked the highest circles, 
the favorites of the king, particularly Prince Anhalt 
and Grumbkow, whom the queen considered her great 
enemies. "Anhalt," said the Margravine, in her Me- 
moirs, "has an unbounded ambition which would make 
him commit any crime to attain his object. Grumbkow's 
line bearing hides a knavish, selfish, treacherous heart. 
His whole character is nothing but a tissue of vices. . . 



150 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

He gave a proof of his valor at Malplaquet, where he 
remained in a ditch during the whole action. He dis- 
tinguished himself at Stralsund, and put his leg out of 
place at the beginning of the campaign, and this j^re- 
vented his going to the trench . . . but, with these ex- 
ceptions, he was a brave general." ^^ Certainly the two 
children had told each other these stories, untrue ones, 
too they were, of Malplaquet and Stralsund. They 
heard it said, also, that Anhalt and Grumbkow induced 
their father to have his drinking parties. 

Wilhelmina goes so far as to say that they tried to 
kill her father and brother. The crime was to have 
been ^perpetrated in a wooden barrack, where a comedy 
was to be played. The queen, warned of the plot, did 
not reveal it to the king, for, in this strange family, 
they made mysteries of things that were the most im- 
portant to disclose. She only arranged to prevent her 
husband and son from going to the comedy. She dis- 
tributed the roles: Wilhelmina was to amuse the king, 
to make him forget the hour; if he remembered it, 
Fritz was to cry, to scream. The scene was well acted. 
The king forgot the hour, but as soon as he remem- 
bered it, he arose and took his son's hand. Fritz 
struggled and uttered terrible cries. The king wanted 
to take him by force. Wilhelmina threw herself at 
his feet, and, clasping them, watered them with her 
tears. Explanations had to be made to the astonished 
and furious king. The contemplated crime was a myth; 
but the queen believed in it, and so did Wilhelmina 
when she wrote her Memoirs.'^^^ It was thus that she 
and Fritz were persuaded that Anhalt and Grumbkow, 



FATHER AKi) SON. I5l 

the two frequenters of the palace and most intimate 
companions of the king, were his would-be assassins. 

These two youthful minds began to take in knowl- 
edge — at too early an age! — to see nothing in life but 
the ugly side. They practiced defiance and scorn. Their 
mutual love was strengthened by the hatred with which 
others inspired them. Everybody remarked their inti- 
macy; they formed a league apart. Francke saw it: 
"by the side of his little brothers and sisters, who 
have sincere, innocent, open faces, the Crown Prince is 
silent, exhibiting a melancholy temperament; so also is 
his eldest sister." ^"^^ At table they looked at each other, 
without speaking a word, no doubt saying in this ex- 
change of glances: " AVhat a world ! One day we will 
change all this." And the father felt the disapproval 
of his son, the resistance of the silent lip and the 
evasive eye. 

Already the division of responsibility in the coming 
drama announces itself. The king's part is large, for 
there is no excuse for his brutality, and it is one of the 
causes of the unhappiness in the family, but only one 
of the causes. We will perceive others with which we 
will become more familiar, when we know the extra- 
ordinary history of the projects of marriage for Fred- 
erick and Wilhelmina. 

THE PROJECTS OF MARRIAGE FOR FREDERICK AND AVIL- 
HELMINA.'"^ 

For a long time the families of Hanover, England 
and Prussia were pledged to perpetuate their small gen- 
ealogy by new alliances. It was tlioroforo agreed tliat 



152 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

Wilhelmina should marry her cousin-german, the Duke 
of Gloucester, son of the Prince of Wales and grandson 
of King George I.; and that Frederick should marry the 
Princess Amelia, sister of the Duke of Gloucester. The 
two mothers, the Queen of Prussia and the Princess of 
Wales, considered these marriage schemes in their cor- 
respondence; the children even exchanged letters and 
little presents. It was one of the articles of Sophia Do- 
rothea's creed that her daughter should be a queen; she 
educated her "to wear a' crown," as she often said. 
She consoled herself for the narrowness of her life by 
thinking that she would one day be the mother of the 
Queen of Great Britain and of the King of Prussia, 
and then she would figure in the world. 

In 1725, when the King of Prussia entered into an 
alliance with Hanover, the moment seemed propitious 
to consecrate by a formal engagement the official prom- 
ises that they had exchanged. The King of Prussia, 
on departing from Herrenhausen, where he had met his 
father-in-law, King George, left the queen there to take 
charge of the negotiations for the double nuptials. This 
family affair seemed very easy to regulate, but King 
George, for various reasons, of which the best was that 
he could not conclude so important an act without a 
'Parliamentary consultation, contented himself with 
affectionate assurances and verbal promises; he refused 
the written ones demanded by the King of Prussia. 
This first delay, at the beginning of the official over- 
tures, was foreboding. The year after, Frederick 
William changed politics, and united himself to the 
Emperor by a treaty. The marriage proposals were 



FATHER AND SON. 153 

Dot abandoned on account of this, but the political dis- 
agreement rendered the completion of it more difficult. 
George I. dying in 1727, the difficulties in"creased, by' 
reason of the sentiments that the new king, George II. 
and his brother-in-law of Prussia professed for each 
other. At the end of the year the affair was considered 
annulled. 

Nothing more simple than this affair, but it soon 
became very complicated through political interests and 
unprecedented intrigues. An alliance of a family like 
this one could not fail to be an event in European poli- 
tics. It made Prussia enter one of the two systems 
which divided the continent; it placed her on the side 
of France and England against the Emperor. The 
Emperor tried to prevent i^; the royal family and the 
Court of Prussia became, in this way, one of diplo- 
macy's fields of battle. 

The Emperor was represented near the king by an 
agent of great ability, whose name we have already met 
more than once. General Count Seckendorff. Frederick 
William held him in high esteem and warm friendship, 
during the Xetherland campaigns, in 1709, and. those in 
Pomerania, in 1715. He was glad of the visits that the 
Count often made him, and happy to see him estab- 
lished at the Court of Prussia, an event which took 
place in 1726. Seckendorff was not charged with the 
official representation of the Court of Vienna at Berlin. 
It was under the title of friend of the King of Prussia, 
who considered him as one of his officers, and desired 
to have him always in his company. Seckendorff lent 
himself with ijood grrace to all the kius:'s wishes, and bent 



154 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

himself to all his customs. He was the j^rincipal fur- 
nisher of big men to His Majesty. He ate and drank 
with him to such an extent that at times he was obliged 
to retire from the court in order to take medicine. He 
was an assiduous member of the college da tabac ("to- 
bacco college"). Being a great conversationalist, he 
could reply to the king on all subjects that pleased him: 
upon war, for he was a good soldier, "as brave as his 
sword ; " upon religion, for, although in the service of 
Austria, he was a devout Protestant. He knew his 
Bible, and was capable of holding a discussion upon 
matters theological and casuistic with a savant like 
Professor Francke. He had, besides, the air of a per- 
fect man, "the appearance and the idle talk of a 
farmer; which latter accomplishment would have been 
despised, without the Blue Cordon of Poland and the 
uniform coat of the big Grenadiers." But the good 
farmer was a very crafty personage. He studied his 
King of Prussia, and knew him as well as anyone. ^°* 
He learned the art of letting the storms, so frequent at 
this court, pass away, without disturbing himself about 
the thunder, of calming the distrust, always on the alert, 
of the sovereign, and amusing an impatience which 
wished to be served " in twenty-four hours." He would 
remain with the king, when he was engaged in some ne- 
gotiation, from ten o'clock in the morning until mid- 
night "so as not to lose an opportunity to insinuate 
something useful." He surrounded him with intrigues 
and treacheries. Nearly every one at the Court of Prus- 
sia was for sale, or had already been sold. He informed 
himself of the price, arranged a rate of prices for these 



FATHER AND SON. 155 

consciences, and gave his government notice of the 
highest sums paid by England and France, so that the 
Emperor, in offering more, could become the last and 
best bidder."^ 

Seckendorff made General Count Grumbkow his prin- 
cipal ally. Grumbkow was with the king continually, 
as he had "charge of all the details of war." He 
made himself indispensable to his master by his rare 
qualities. He was well up in matters of all kinds, 
military, diplomatic, economic, always ready to make 
concessions, and inexhaustible in expediency. He ex- 
celled in negotiating, because he had "an affable dis- 
position, politeness, a knowledge of the ways of the 
world, and much wit, and spoke pertinently on every 
subject," with an open, gay, distinguished physiogno- 
my. He had entire possession of his "Jupiter," as he 
called the king, despising at heart the grossness of his 
person, sometimes having nausea from it, but submit- 
ting gracefully; very clever at calming "Jupiter," or 
making him boil over with anger. Taking all into 
consideration, he was one of the most dishonest men 
that had ever been in a European cabinet, "without 
principle, without faith," sold to the Court of Vienna, 
while waiting for France to buy him, making them pay 
a big price, at the same time clever enough to merit 
his annual pension and valuable presents for services 
rendered. He gave Seckendorff the secretissunff of fam- 
ily and State, gave him notice of all their proceedings, 
at the opportune moment, and, as Seckendorff said, he 
had a way of presenting things to His Majesty so as 
"to render them savory to him — 7(?ji iJun die tSache 
scJnnerkhfift zh niacJu'n.'''*^^^'' 



156 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

To have Grumbkow, that was much, for he was the 
"king's favorite," and possessed Frederick William's 
confidence, but Seckendorff would have liked to assure 
himself of all those who were continually in the mas- 
ter's presence. He dared not offer ducats to the mili- 
tary, who were incorruptible; but, as the officers of His 
Majesty's regiment were badly paid, and loved to drink, 
Seckendorff, when he was at Potsdam, invited them to 
dine with him once a week. These gentlemen emptied 
forty or fifty bottles of wine, each one of which cost one 
florin forty kreutzers, and "this seemed good to them." 
For the generals and colonels, he begged his court to 
procure giants for him so that he could make a present 
of them to Frederick William; for it was a claim to 
the king's favor, for the chief of a regiment to present 
him with tall recruits at the inspection reviews. Be- 
sides, no one was neglected by the king. In the smok- 
ing aj^artment, the professor and court fool, Gundling, 
discoursed upon public law, and, each time he treated, 
"of an imperial matter," and flattered the king's pro- 
pensity, in contesting or lowering the imperial rights; 
"he insinuated false principles in his master." Quickly, 
"a chain of gold of some hundred florins, to which a 
medal was attached," was presented to this Gundling; 
the doorkeeper, Eversmann, another confidant of the 
king, who, unfortunately, said Wilhelmina "had none 
but dishonest ones," became a pensioner of His Impe- 
rial Majesty. 

By these means, the honest farmer had a good hold on 
the Kinff of Prussia. He must never be allowed to es- 
cape from our hands, — cms den Ilclnden gehen lassen. In 



FATHER AND SON. 157 

truth, he did not relax his hold an instant. He watched 
his every movement, noted his every speech, redoubled 
attention in proportion as the wine loosened the king's 
tongue, — da mehr JVei?i ham dazu, and the next day this 
companion-in-arm^s, this co-religionist, this sincere friend 
of Frederick William, would send his report to the 
Emperor and Prince Eugene, that is, if so much drink- 
ing did not give him too bad a headache: "As His 
Majesty," he wrote one day to Prince Eugene, "has 
supped with me, and we have been very gay up to mid- 
night, and have all drunk to some excess, — ein icenii/ 
excessive, — I am not in a fit condition to write at length 
to-day." 

A short time after his installation in Prussia, Seck- 
endorff, among other questions, addressed the folio wing- 
to the Vienna Cabinet: "Can you expend something 
to prevent the projected marriage of a Prussian princess 
and the Duke of Gloucester, and how much? — Wie viel 
angewendet icerden dcirff Supposing that another mar- 
riage could be arranged for the Royal Princess of Prus- 
sia, would you promise a considerable recompense ? — 
einen ansehnlichen Recompens to the one who could man- 
age this affair well ?"^''^ This is rightly called, putting 
the question. Now, the Court of Vienna wished, at 
any price, as we have said before, to sever this alliance. 
Seekendorff went immediately to work. The Courts of 
England and France, although they had their pension- 
ers in Prussia, did not use as powerful means of ac- 
tion as Austria, nor put forward as much zeal in 
carrying out the ])rojected ])lans of marriage as the 
Coui't of Vienna in thwarting them; the Austrian then 
had the best of his adversaries. 



158 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

THE KING AND THE PROJECTS OF MARRIAGE. 

Now let US follow, in the labyrintli of these intrigues, 
the king, the queen, and their children. The king ar- 
dently desired the marriages. Those of his ministers 
who were devoted to France said again and again that 
"the only way to gain this alliance was to induce the 
King of England to agree to the double marriage." As 
soon as Frederick William learned that France had in- 
terested herself in it at London, he returned thanks, and 
"tears came to his eyes." One day the Envoy of France, 
w^hile walking with him in the garden of Wusterhausen, 
spoke of the possibility of obtaining from King George 
a written promise. The king was in a furious rage with 
England; his abusive epithets were inexhaustible, and he 
pressed his companion's arm when he wished to interrupt 
him. At the words, however, "written promise," he 
suddenly became calm, and stopped: " Re^jeat," said he, 
"repeat," and, in order to understand it better, he raised 
his wig. At the accession of his brother-in-law, Georgo 
II., he sent a negotiator to London, and asked France 
to work toward "re-arranging these marriages." Only, 
he did the opposite from what he should do, to attain 
the desired object. He left the Hanover alliance to go 
over to the Emperor's side. He committed strange ec- 
centricities, which gave England, cause to complain of 
his "queer conduct." He did not fail to put all the 
wrong on others. When he received from England, 
in November, 1727, the response that he should have 
foreseen; that you must not "begin a romance at 
the end," and that, before speaking of marriage, other, 
affairs must be regulated, he called his brother-in-law 



FATHER AND SON. 159 

publicly "a small genius of the poorest kind." He 
invited the English resident to dine, and had read, at 
table, a mocking account of the Coronation of the 
Queen of England. The resident pretended that he 
did not understand German; the king translated it into 
French, and handed him the paper: "Here," he said, 
"behold your Queen of England, whom Polichinelle 
leads by the hand in the marionettes, and makes her 
drink whisky. What do you say to that?"^°^ 

His conduct was, as usual, complicated by very simple 
influences. He felt sure that these alliances were for 
the Royal Family of Prussia — royal so short a time — 
honorable, and even glorious. England was so great 
since she had vanquished Louis XIV ! Of all the pow- 
ers that had fought "the good fight" of reform, it was 
the most important; and then it was so rich ! A prince 
of Wales, a Royal Princess of England, these were very 
desirable parties for a son and daughter of "a guardian 
king;" but this guardian was proud. He had a high 
idea of his House, and faith in the future that he pre- 
pared for it. He thought that even if the throne of 
England was the most illustrious in the world, the 
Hanoverians were not worth any more than he. Tliis 
brother-in-law, George II., whose "haughtiness he could 
not digest," he had known, (as has been stated,) at the 
time when this great seignior was but the grandson of a 
Duke of Hanover, recently promoted to the Electorate. 
His Wilhelmina was also a desirable parti: "The Avoman 
was well worth the man." So, for these reasons, lie 
did not wish to hasten. He knew that the Frencli ]\l;n- 
ister was working for these marriages, but he was never 



160 FKEDERICK THE GREAT. 

the first to broach the subject to him. He had "a 
kind of timidity ... a shame, and a repugnance 
toward making the advances. " ^^^ 

He had still other reasons for being circumspect; not- 
withstanding that he and the King of England declared 
turn by turn that the marriages must be simply treated 
as family matters, both knew well enough that politics 
could not be excluded from the question. And so we find 
Frederick William a prey to the troubles that torment 
him as soon as the subject of an engagement is consid- 
ered. It was useless for Grumbkow and Seckendorff to 
represent to him, while he was vainly waiting for the 
declaration of the King of England, that this monarch 
deceived, mocked, only endeavored to "dishonor" and 
separate him from the Emperor, in order to finally 
' ' ruin him out and out. " And then again, Frederick 
William was not a man to sacrifice any of the interests 
of his House in order to marry his daughter. On the 
contrary, he wished to gain something. He employed 
his customary reasoning : ' ' What will you offer me ? " 
He wished to have the succession of Berg guaranteed ; 
when the Emperor promised him that, he acted haugh- 
tily toward the other party. " He was punishing the 
King of England for his tardiness," said he to the 
French Minister; he would force him to ask his daugh- 
ter's hand with urgent entreaties and without condition: 
"Her wedding dowry would be too much, since it 
would make me lose Berg," he said. At last this sin- 
gular father, with a daughter to marry, gives expres- 
sion to his real thought: "I will give her but a few 
precious stones, some vessels and some silver." To be 



FATHER AND SON. 161 

brief, he jjlaced Wilhelmina at auction, and pretended, 
after havingr been assured of the finest advantaores, to 
establish her without dot^ or something very much to 
that effect. He acts like a cunning peasant, who seeks 
a line city gentleman for his daughter, but is afraid of 
being obliged to pay for his satisfaction in bags of 
crown-pieces. 

The ill success of his petty scheme threw him into a 
state of despair. He had the air of a person who did 
not hold these marriages of much account. If the 
King of England is so hard to please, we '^' will find^ 
another husband" fot Wilhelmina: "All things consid- 
ered, I am indifferent as to whether or not she will be 
called queen. This title will add nothing to the lustre 
and power of my House." Then, as one must always 
look for the most unexpected actions in him, he con- 
tided to the- Minister of France the means he will em- 
ploy " to preserve the chastity of the princess." The 
minister dared not repeat his words in an official letter: 
he sent them in a note. In my turn, I dare not rei)eat 
them."*^ 

This indifference of the King of Prussia was entirely 
an affectation. lie suffered from England's scorn. 
Tears would come to - his eyes when he saw his 
daughter. "After this she will be considered no bet- 
ter than a prostitute,""^ he said. 

This affair henceforth is the base of all the king's 
bad humor. Naturally, he placed all the burden of it 
upon his family. He flew into a rage at the queen, whom 
he inflicted with the humiliation of a public broil of 
two weeks' duration. He refused to receive her, or even 



lfj.2 - FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

to read the letters she sent from Berlin to Potsdam, 
where lie was staying. When he returned to Berlin he 
did not wish to see her, dined without the queen, and 
this "coldness did not cease until the last few moments 
of his stay there." These quarters of an hour recon- 
ciliations led only to truces. The misunderstandings 
recommenced, during which he would barricade the 
doors of his apartments. Scenes would occur, when he 
would menace the queen with having her banished to 
Spandaii, and propose husbands for her daughter, that to 
name alone, would throw her into violent spells of an- 
ger. He divided equally his reproaches among his two 
eldest children and his wife: "When thou and thy 
English family come to need my doctor," said he to the 
que^'en one day, as she was trying to prevent him from 
sending his physician td" the sick Czarina, "I will not 
. lend htm to thee."'^^ He never raised his hand against 
her, but he began to mistreat his son in other ways than 
words. The resentment of his mortifications, added to 
to the cause of discontent that Frederick gave him, 
explains these spells of rage that seized the King of 
Prussia. 

THE PARTY OF THE CROWN PRINCE. 

I do not wish the reader to think that I have the 
intention of excusing Frederick William's conduct. I 
am trying only to find the exact state of his mind at 
the time he began to practice his brutalities. In these 
same troubled waters, we must now follow the queen 
and her two elder children. All three were ardently 
encaged in the projects of marriage. They assuredly 



FATHER AND SON. 1G3 

had the right to desire them, and defend themselves 
against the Court of Vienna, against Grumbkow and 
Seckendorff, and of hating and displeasing these per- 
sonages, whom Wilhelmina accused of having been 
"both at the same game in their youth," whence 
they made their fortune. The two allies incessantly 
besieged the king, and circumvented him; one can un- 
derstand, then, the reason of the, queen's placing herself 
with the opposite faction, and showering her favors 
upon Du Bourgay, the English Minister, and Rotten- 
burg, the French Minister, but it was dangerous ground ; 
the affair being political, care had to be taken not to 
usurp the rights of Royal Majesty and glide into treason. 

Now the queen, at the same time that she begged, sup- 
plicated and intrigued at London, placed herself on a ba- 
sis of intimacy with Rottenburg. Not only did she relate 
to him a part of her trials, and saw in the kindness of 
the King of France alone a resource for her safety, but 
she consulted him as to her conduct toward Grumbkow; 
she kept him posted about everytliing that happened. 
She arranged with him to prevent an Imperialist from en- 
tering into the Ministry, and suggested means for carry- 
ing on '^ a secret correspondence." The queen showed 
him the letters that she was sending to England, and 
gave them to him to deliver, "as a means of security." 
When he was leaving the court, she charged him with 
a mission for the King of England, who was at Han- 
over. To be brief, she made use of a foreign political 
agent, to practice a policy contrarv to that of her hus- 
band. "3 

Sophia Dorothea did not stop there. She accustomed 



164 FREDERICK THE GRRAT. 

herself to the idea that the kino^ would not live a lonsr 
time, and made it her (Juty to think of the future. She 
treated with Rottenburg upon this delicate subject. 
One day she explained to him " the measures that 
seemed good for her to take, should the king die a 
lunatic." The French Minister responded that this was 
a "useless and. dangerous conversation," and that an 
indiscretion would expose Her Majesty to most severe 
treatment, but, at the sama time, he gave his advice : 
"The most reasonable conduct, for the present, is to 
inspire the Crown Prince with good sentiments, and 
have him show to everyone as much kindness, as his 
father does harshness, and, above all, to dissimulate 
with friends of the Imperial party, for fear that they 
may suggest to the king, with some appearance of 
reason, that there is a party forming against him for 
the Crown Prince.""' 

The word was pronounced ; the party of the Crown 
Prince. Rottenburg knew then that the Crown Prince 
was ready to enter into his views, and even to antici- 
pate them. Frederick actually sought Rottenburg. A 
month before this interview with the queen, this minis- 
ter wrote as follows to his court: " The Crown Prince 
overwhelms me with attentions, and, without any ad- 
vances on my side, he told me, some days ago, that 
he knew how well I had taken the part of his grand- 
father, and that he wished me to render an exact ac- 
count of all the king^ his father^ said. " This first over- 
ture, so to the point, appears 'to have surprised the 
diplomat. He knew well that General Fink, who was 
a relative, gave serviceable "insinuations" to the 



FATHER AND SON. 165 

prince, but he held liiiiiself aloof: " I took care not to 
divulge my opinions in any way," said he, "notwith- 
standing this young prince's premature and dissimulat- 
ing ways.""^ Let us note, in passing, that this 
youthful politician was but fourteen years old. 

Frederick did not allow himself to be rebuffed. He 
insisted ; every day he asked Rottenburg " if he had no 
consoling news to give him for the queen." Just at this 
time the prince was solicited by the Imperialists, but 
he was not won over by them, and kept Rottenburg 
informed of all the propositions made to him from that 
side. Then the minister commenced to take part in 
the game. He also thought that the King of Prussia 
had not long to live. So he decided to respond to the 
advances of the prince, to assure himself of all the 
persons surrounding him, and to commence to form a 
party. " The king," said he, "is universally hated by 
all classes in his kingdom. In order to disarm the 
father^ it icill be necessary to form a jyarty for the 
Croion Prince, and to attach to his side a number of 
officers. . . I believe that this scheme would suc- 
ceed. At any rate, this would be rearing the young 
prince in views favorable to France." Frederick be- 
came more and more marked in his attentions; he would 
take him by the hand, and beg him to continue his care 
for the good cause; he was not then in a condition to 
show his gratitude, but it was profoundly engraven 
upon his heart. What gave the most confidence to Rot- 
tenburg was, "that the prince bitterly hated the king, 
his father.""^ 

Thus a kind of counter plot was organized. The con- 



166 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

spirators were very jjriident. Frederick having offered 
his portrait to Rottenburg, the latter suggested to hiin 
"the strictest reserve." ''I pretend never to speak to 
the prince," said the minister, "but I have several 
sure, faithful ways of making known to him what I 
desire and of receiving his messages." He put Freder- 
ick "in close intercourse" with Cnyphausen, one of 
the ministers pensioned by France. He soon believed 
himself sure of the Crown Prince, "not only for the 
hope of the future, but even to make use of him now, 
in order to flatter our friends and intimidate our ene- 
mies." In fact, Frederick compromised himself more 
and more. This led to great imprudence, and here is 
the gravest one, testified by Rottenburg: "I had a very 
interesting conversation with the Crown Prince. The 
next day he wrote me a letter. I believed it my duty 
not to answer it, and I exhorted him to have patience. 
As all this is a question upon which one may not treat 
to-day, I will defer it for a verbal account." ^'^ 

Unfortunately, we know nothing of this verbal account. 
The departure of Rottenburg, who had obtained per- 
mission to withdraw from the court, and was soon to be 
sent into Spain, interruj)ted these revelations; but the 
matter is not lacking in conjecture. At this time, Rot- 
tenburg prophesied an approaching revolution, and 
announced that everything "was preparing for it." He 
repeated this, prediction in nearly every one of his letters, 
and wrote forcibly of the discontentment of all classes, 
the military, the civilians, and the clergy. As for the 
"clergy, they murmur more than any of them." There 
was no longer a question of the king's death; it was of 



FATHER AND SON. 167 

an act of violence. What act? A revolution, properly 
speaking, coming from the street or the army, as it hap- 
pened in our century, was not probable. I dare not go 
into the extent of my thought, but it seems to me, 
that Rottenburg had the idea that in this strange court, 
against this prince who governed Russian fashion, a 
revolution would find its complicity in high places. He 
believed and said that anything might happen. "The 
mind of man can hardly divine how all this will end." 
He undoubtedly foresaw, at least, a confinement of 
the king, after being declared insane. However, it is 
permissible to suppose, that between this foreign min- 
ister and this prince, "who so bitterly hated his 
father," there were strange understandings in these in- 
terviews which could not be confided to paper. 

But let us suppose nothing: we have proofs which 
are sufficient. The young prince was truly ' ' premature. " 
Rottenburg could not help admiring how perfectly he 
played his role. To the Imperialists who tried to draw 
him over to their side, and who promised to procure 
"concessions" from his father, he answered, like a 
model son, " that he hoped, in observing good conduct, 
that the king would have some consideration for him, 
and that if he failed in his duties, he was not worthy 
of interest from any one." Even with his friends, who 
knew well the state of affairs, he used veiled expres- 
sions. He spoke, not of his party, but "the party of 
his grandfather," King George. If he thanked Rot- 
tenburg, it was for the care that he took " for the pre- 
servation of the estates of the king, my father." He 
found this a pleasing tone, this diplomatic lying, as it 



168 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

is called, knowing well that he deceived no one. How 
far, then, did his secret thoughts go? Was he already 
desiring the death of his father? At all events, he en- 
tertained, inwardly, the idea of this death. He did not 
see in what form the future would present itself, but he 
discounted and burdened it with the hypothesis of this 
gratitude, "that he regretted not being able to show 
then." The impatience that Rottenburg calmed by his 
exhortations was that of wishing to reign. "^ 

Already Frederick was turning a smiling face (the 
king will reproach him soon for it) to all those his 
father mistreated. This unselfishness, this liberality, 
this charity that Seckendorff attributed"^ to him, the 
future showed was not in his nature. When he distrib- 
uted to the poor of Strassfurt the city's present, caution- 
ing his tutors not to breathe a word of it to the king ; 
when he promised to return, on his accession, to the 
poor of Magdeburg the money that the king forced him 
to accept; all this generosity was very susj^icious. "The 
prince," said Rottenburg, "must show as much kind- 
ness as the king, his father, harshness." Frederick fol- 
lowed this advice: he worked to form "the party of the 
Crown Prince." Like h[s mother, he was engaged in for- 
eign intercourse. He was not yet writing letters to Lon- 
doii or to Versailles, but he commended himself to the 
good auspices of France. At Versailles' they regarded 
him as a child of the House, and wished to contribute 
to his education: "The main point," wrote they to Rot- 
tenburg, "is to instruct this young prince in the true 
principle that whatever part princes take, it is only 
firmness in their engagements that can give them consid- 



FATHER AND SON. 169 

eration and procure them strong advantages.'''' Admira- 
ble counsel, and well placed I The King of France him- 
self was interested. He wrote to Rottenburg : "What 
you have remarked in the Crown Prince seems to give 
great hope for his right spirit and discernment. Profit 
by the relations you have with those who surround him, 
present to him my acquiescence in his sentiments and 
the assurances of my interest in his welfare. "'-^ 

Frederick William could not ignore all these intrigues; 
the queen was a bad conspirator, and even the prince 
did not know how to hide his schemes. The adverse 
coterie, besides, watched the queen's maneuvers.'-' 
One day she appealed to the king, and informed him 
of the existence of anonymous letters. Grumbkow held 
three, in which it was stated in plain terms "that the 
queen was untrue to her husband, and that there was 
talk of doing away with him, shutting him up, and 
placing the Crown Prince on the throne." The king 
shoAved these letters to the queen, and she had some 
difficulty in clearing herself. He sent them imme- 
diately to his cabinet, and the affair went no farther; 
but he conceive4, it was said, "a great fear of these 
letters, particularly of those that referred to the Crown 
Prince." He had the barbarous idea of making his son 
drunk, so as to find out if they talked state affairs to 
him; the prince held his own well, said only what was. 
desired, and did not compromise anyone. If Frederick 
William did not know all that was going on, he still 
had his suspicions, but let us admit that he suspected 
nothing: the conclusion from the history of these weak 
conspiracies is that the Crown Prince, — not to offend 



ITO EflEDERICK THE GREAT. 

his future greatness,^ — roundly deserved a box on the 
ears now and then. 

FAREWELL TO THE PRECEPTOR E0RBIDDE:N" PLEASURES* 

In the year 1727, when the conflict between father and 
son had become bitter, the Crown Prince was entering 
a new period of his existence. In April of that year 
he had received confirmation; his studies, as a pupil, 
had' been officially ended, and the tutor had retired. 

-*'' My dear Duhan,"^^^ wrote Frederick, "I j^romise 
that when I have my own money at hand, I will give 
you annually twenty-four hundred crowns, and that I 
will love you more than ever, if that be possible." 

One would wish this note to be not only of another 
orthography, but that the crowns should figure at the 
elid as a delicate allusion. But Duhan was a small per- 
sonage, "a worthy man," as Wilhelmina said, and Fred- 
erick did not trouble himself to be careful about the 
style. He, however, always retained for his master a 
sincere affection and gratitude. 

The king permitted the other two preceptors to re- 
main near the prince, and replaced Duhan by Major 
Senning, who was charged with the prince's, military 
education. He must have taken pleasure in dismissing 
Duhan, and have rejoiced in the arrival of the hour for 
^Frederick's practical education, if he had not already 
^reached that point, where no joy could come from a 
child that he held in such aversion. The king never 
tried to lead his son back by gentleness and persua- 
sion, through calm, open-hearted explanations. He 
wMched him secretly, had his actions spied by domes- 



FATHER AND SON. 171 

tics, and even by friends. In December, 1727, he 
called Lieutenant Borcke and three other officers before 
him to say, in presence of the prince, that "he was at 
a perilous age, and subject to bad inclinations;" he 
had chosen these four men to guard over his conduct, 
"and he rendered them responsible, with their heads, 
for the least excess or irregularity from which they did 
not turn the prince" or give notice of it to the king.^-'^ 
One of them must always accompany Frederick. It is 
impossible to imagine a more awkward or. humiliating - 
proceeding. ^ 

Through this excess of surveillance, the king incited 
his son to hide from him all that he Could of hi^ 
life. The prince covered up his good as well as bad: 
actions. He began by collecting secretly a library of. 
more than three thousand volumes. The catalogue com- , 
prised the great English and French periodicals (fifty- 
two volumes of the Journal cles /Savants)', an English 
Encyclopedia: bibliographies; manuals; ana; dictionaries 
and grammars of the French, Italian and Spanish lan- 
guages; a dictionary of French rhymes; treatises on 
poetry, style and conversation; the great writers of an- 
tiquity in their Italian and English translations, but 
particularly in the French; the great French writers,^ 
from the time of Rabelais; all that had been published 
of Voltaire's works, the great Italian writers ; all the' 
universal histories of any value, abridged Greek histo- 
ries, many books on Roman history, history of all^the 
countries of Europe, particularly that of France; only 
a few books, French or translated into French, on the 
history of Germany, and a single little abridged history 



172 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

ill French, of Brandenburg ; a great quantity of Me- 
moirs in French; maps historical, geographical, ethno- 
graphical; stories of travels, most of them in France; 
books upon the fine arts and music, majority French; 
books of political literature, Machiavelli, The Utopia 
of Sir Thomas More, The Republic of Bodin, The Eter- 
7ud Peace of the Abbe of Saint-Pierre; books on mili- 
tary literature; histories on religion and on Christian 
Churches, political and apologetic books, all the writ- 
ings of Madame Guyon; histories of philosophy and 
treatises on the morals of pagans and Christians; the 
works of Descartes, Bayle, and Locke. '-^ 

As precocious as Frederick was, he would not have 
been able, at the age of fifteen, to plan such a library. 
He was advised by Duhan, who made the purchases, 
and in this way aided him to follow his intellectual ed- 
ucation. The prince made, in his own handwriting, the 
first catalogue of his library, in 1727. He copied titles 
of books that treated of all classes of human knowl- 
edge. He was prepared to comprehend everything; 
before his youthful mind was displayed a horizon so 
vast that Germany occupied a very small place there, 
and Brandenburg was hardly visible. These works upon 
mathematics and physics, Descartes, Bayle, Locke, Vol- 
taire, a dictionary of French rhymes, were in truth 
Frederick the Great's library. He had hidden this 
treasure in a rented house near the castle; the books 
were enclosed in closets, and Duhan kept the keys. 
Undoubtedly, he would hurry there every quarter of an 
hour he could steal from his duties and burdens which 
filled up his days. He must have read here and there, 



FATHER AND SON. ' 173 

hapliazarJ, (through bribery,) in great haste, with a 
restless greediness. If he had been surprised by his 
father, what a scene I The king detested books to such 
an extent that he suppressed the fund for the Royal Li- 
brary, and gave to a general an income of one thousand 
thalers out of the fund to be expended in the purchase 
of books, which was exactly one thousand thalers. 

In this way was perpetuated the resistance of a young 
mind thirsting for intellectual pleasure, from the tyran- 
ny of Frederick William; but the prince was going 
to give his father sorrow of another kind. In the be- 
ginning of the year 1728 the king prepared to dej^art 
for Dresden, where his visit was expected. At first, he 
decided that his son should rtot follow him. Frederick, 
who had such a great desire to see other countries, other 
customs, and, no doubt, also to figure as a prince in a 
foreign place, was so chagrined on learning that he was 
not to be of the party that his sister, Wilhelmina, 
feared he would fall sick. She had, as we know, a mind 
full of resources. She schemed so as to make Suhm, 
the Minister of Saxony, ask King Augustus to urgently 
request a visit from the prince. The King of Poland 
insisted to such a point that the King of Prussia called 
his son to Dresden. He wished even that the young 
man should make his appearance well-dressed, and or- 
dered him to have made "a coat with gold trimmings, 
and six uniforms for his suite.*' ^-^ Now we behold both 
of them at the most brilliant court in Germany; this 
was a new occasion for the exchange of their antipathies. 
Fritz found himself perfectly at ease in this grand at-, 
mosphere and this magnificence, which contrasted so 



174 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

strongly with the sorry mien of the Court of Berlin. 
He was treated as a Crown Prince; another comparison. 

He knew how to please, to charm, "to make himself 
beloved by these people of Saxony. . . His tastes 
seemed to blend more readily with their manner of liv- 
ing than those of the king, his father." Frederick 
William did what he could to be agreeable, but he had 
some mishaps, among others he burst his trousers at a 
ball, where "the vivacity of the dance made him lose 
the power of reflection." As he had brought with him 
only one jiair of trousers of ceremony, he had to send 
for another, by special courier to Berlin. He saw that 
his son presented a better appearance to the world than 
he did. He refused him occasions to come forward, 
and forced him, for example, to decline an invitation 
to dine with the French Minister. But he could not 
shut him up entirely. Frederick went to dine with the 
Minister of State, Manteufel, who had a fine, cultivated 
mind. He philosophized there at his ease ; two days 
after, writing to his sister, he signed his name: Freder- 
ick the Philosopher. Music was highly honored at the 
X)resden Court; the prince heard an opera there, for the 
first time, and, no doubt, with great delight. To be 
brief, the prince enjoyed everything so much that the 
king took revenge by mortifying him.*-^ 

Necessarily, on returning to Berlin, the prince be- 
came more melancholy than ever. He could be seen 
growing thinner and thinner; he fell sick of a kind of 
slow fever, and was threatened with consumption or 
some pulmonary trouble, said the physician, — love- 
sick, wrote Wilhelmina, • for "he had acquired a 



FATHER AND SON. 175 

taste for debauchery at Dresden, and the restraint 
in which he was kept prevented his excesses in this 
direction." The king believed him in danger, and 
"the voice of nature" made itself heard, and he 
grieved about him. "When children are in good 
health," he wrote to Prince Anhalt, " one does not know 
that one loves them." He listened with patience to the 
queen, who reproached him with the illness of his son, 
and declared to him "that she could bear very well the 
sorrows that would fall upon her alone, but that for 
her son, she would not permit them to abuse his strength 
in his condition." He even had remorse for past vigor- 
ous measures, which he tried to make the prince forget 
by kind attention. This was one of the rare short 
moments, when the father was himself. 

One regrets to think that, even in those days of 
reconciliation, everybody was not sincere. At' least 
Wilhelmina relates that her mother, brother, and the 
physician, "who was disposed to be on their side," ex- 
aggerated the illness, so as to procure the prince some 
repose. She did not believe that it was the return of 
paternal tenderness that cured her brother. The 'King 
of Poland came in the month of May to return the visit 
paid to him six months before. Frederick did not ap- 
pear immediately at the fetes. He had decided — for 
his philosophy did not go so far as to despise prece- 
dency — not to sit "at the table of ceremony at Berlin, 
for he did not wish to cede his place to the Electoral- 
prince of Saxony, a thing his father would not fail to 
exact from him;" but he took good care not to lose the 
opportunity of seeing again the Dresden guests; he went 
to the court. 



176 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

The journey of the king through the province of 
Prussia was another happy event, in the year 1728. 
He did not take Frederick with him. The prince had 
a relapse, and pretended that his malady was worse 
than it really was, to evade the ennui of the paternal 
comj)anionship. The king, before leaving, regulated 
by an instruction to Kalkstein the regime of the prince 
during his absence. He ordered that Frederick should 
receive every morning a two-hours' lesson upon mili- 
tary tactics, given by Major Senning ; that he should 
dine exactly at noon. Kalkstein, Senning and the 
Maitre de Cuisine Holwedel should dine with him, but 
he had the privilege of inviting six others. Thirty 
minutes after meals, fencing for an hour; then, until 
four o'clock, lessons from Senning. The prince, "after 
four o'clock, might divert himself in any way he liked, 
provided he did nothing contrary to the commandment 
of God and His Majesty. He could follow the various 
pleasures of the hunt, but Colonel Kalkstein must be 
always with him." He was allowed to dine and sup 
out, but never to sleep away from his own apartments. 
After the retreat was sounded, he must retire immedi- 
ately. It is always the same tone of command, the 
same strict method of ruling everything.^-' To do 
nothing contrary to the commands of His Majesty! 
But, even this was a recreation for Frederick. 

There was at the court, during the absence of the 
king, a perfect furore of music. The King of Poland 
sent, upon the queen's request, "the most clever of his 
virtuosos, such as the famous Weiss, whose playing up- 
on the lute has never been excelled ; Bufardin, renowned 



FATHER AND SON. 177 

for his fine execution upon the German flute, and Quantz, 
master of the same instrument, a great composer, whose 
taste and exquisite art found means of training his flute 
to be equal to the sweetest voice. "^-* The queen then 
gave concerts that must have been listened to by the 
prince with ecstatic delight. He passionately loved 
music, and played on the harpsichdrd, violin and flute; 
the latter, however, was his favorite instrument. He, 
perhaps, had chosen the flute from the ideas he received 
from Telemachus, where Fenelon describes the pupil of 
Minerva charming with the sounds of this instrument 
his new-born loves. To play the flute and read were 
Frederick's real pleasures. He took but little advan- 
tage of the jjermission given to hunt, "to run down an 
animal;" the chase, the favorite pastime of his father, 
was for him but a violent, stupid exercise. He went 
only when ordered to do so, and, every opportunity he 
could find, would steal behind a tree and draw out his 
flute. He unquestionably expressed upon this pastoa*al 
instrument, better .than through the verses he is soon 
going to write the vague, poetic sentiment that cher- 
ished his youthful fancy. 

The taste that he and his sister alike had for music 
gave to their friendship a charming grace. They played 
duets : Wilhelmina called her lute Principe^ and Fritz 
called his flute Principessa. 

THE AUTUMN OF 1728 AT WUSTERHAUSEN. 

"We are infinitely entertained. We pass tranquil 
days ..." said Wilhelmina, speaking of the absence 
of her father: but their father returned, and thev had 



178 FKEDERICK THE GREAT. 

to fall "from paradise into purgatory." The sojourn 
at Wusterhausen, in the autumn of 1728, with these 
violent scenes, was a mortal agony. Frederick tried to 
evade it; he wished, as a matter of course, to travel, 
to see other countries, and satisfy his lively curiosity; 
but it was princijially because he wanted to go away. 
He did not dare ask his father's permission himself. 
Kalkstein slipped this request into a conversation he 
had with the king, who resj^onded with a sharp refusal; 
he had to remain ; never had Wusterhausen appeared 
more horrible to Frederick and Wilhelmina. 

The princess has drawn, with enraged maliciousness, 
the caricature of this place of abode, so dear to Fred- 
erick William, " that enchanted castle . . . which 
consisted only of a mass of lodgings, whose beauty was 
heightened by an antique tower that contained a spiral 
wooden staircase. The main building was surrounded 
by a terrace, around which a ditch was built, whose 
black, sluggish water resembled that of the Styx, and 
spread abroad a frightful odor, enough to produce suf- 
focation. Three bridges, placed on three different sides 
of the house, communicated with the court, garden, 
and a windmill opposite. This court was formed on two 
sides by two wings, where the gentlemen of the king's 
suite were lodged. It was enclosed by a palisade, at 
the entrance of which were fastened two white eagles, 
two black eagles, and two bears, in form of sentinels, 
and, by the way, very wicked animals they were, at- 
tacking everybody. "^^^ 

The house, it is true, had no pretensions to being a 
palace, and that is the reason it pleased Frederick Wil- 



FATHER AND SON. 179 

Ham. It was the mansion of a country squire: the 
tower recalled its feudal origin. The spiral wooden 
staircase is there, and the plan of the interior has not 
been changed : on the ground-floor, some rooms of mod- 
est grandeur served as dining-hall and bed-chambers for 
the king and queen. On the first floor the tahagie or 
'* smoking-room" occupied the best and largest place: 
the rest was divided up into very small apartments. The 
deep-recessed, narrow windows but imperfectly lighted 
this house, which must have been very dark during the 
days of autumn and winter. The landscape was ex- 
ceedingly plain: it was a desert. A scanty woodland 
stretched out over the flat expanse and bordered the 
sandy avenues, where the pedestrian heard not. even the 
sound of his own footsteps; it was a place of silence. 
But this Koenigs-Wiisterhausen is expressive. It is a 
revelation of Frederick William, and the simjjlicity of 
his life, enframed in dry prose. Alas ! I have seen there 
in a mirage the beauties of the Trianon, and the majes- 
tic Palace of Versailles, the Babylonian flights of stairs 
that lead to the high terrace, the long, solemn line of 
the Chateau and the great windows of the Triumphal 
Hall, where the fifth successor of Frederick William in- 
augurated, twenty years ago, the German Empire. 

Wilhelmina and Fritz suffered at Wusterhausen from 
the mediocrity of their quarters and the narrowness of 
their apartments, or, "to better explain, the garret," 
where their Royal Highnesses were unworthily lodged. 
But, above all, they suffered from perpetual contact 
with the king. In this small space they lived upon 
each other. 



180 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

Frederick tried to lighten his existence through read- 
ing and correspondence. He often wrote to Lieutenant 
Borcke. 

His friendship increased for this officer. He ex- 
pressed his sentiments in terms of peculiar tenderness: 
'/No one loves and esteems you as much as I do. . . . 
Give me the half of this regard in reciprocal friend- 
ship." He made excuses for tiring him with his sorrows 
and his importunate affection. When Borcke was sick 
the prince threatened the whole race of physicians with 
his anger if they did not cure his "dear Bork;" he 
j)redicted what would happen to them by a reminis- 
cence of Moliere, "from this will come dropsy which 
will make them fall into a consuming fever, this will 
engender pulmonary trouble that will finally kill them." 
He reiterates the fear of importuning his friend: "My 
tiresome affection will escape from me and lay bare to 
you these sentiments of a heart that yoii entirely pos- 
sess, which cannot be appeased except by knowing that 
you are fully convinced of the true love with which it 
worships you." 

He was certain enough of this friend, whom the king, 
however, had charged to watch over him, that he might 
learn his secrets in this way. "The king," writes 
Frederick to him, "continues to be in a bad humor; 
he scolds everybody, and is not content with the world 
nor himself. . . . He is still terribly angry with 
me. ..." The prince complained of the life he led. 
He was weary of the chase : ' ' To-morrow there will 
be a hunt at force, and the day after, and Sunday and 
Monday." He was tired of the tahagie, where his only 



FATHER AND SON. 181 

pleasure was 'Ho open tlie nuts, a pleasure worthy of tlie 
place we occupy."" lie wearied of the buffoonery of 
the king's jesters and the conversation of the guests: 
"We have here a most foolish assemblage of a varied 
and badly-chosen company, for neither the dispositions, 
ages nor inclinations of those who compose it are con- 
genial, so that there is no continued discourse." He is 
worn out with tliese days, and wishes he had not lived 
them. "I arose at five o'clock this morning, and it is 
now midnight. I am so tired out with what I see that 
I wish I could efface it from my memory as completely 
as if it had never been there." 

At times he would appear resigned: "One learns 
after a long while to become free from care. I am in 
that condition at the present hour, and, in spite of all 
that may happen to me, I play the flute, read, and love 
my friends always more than myself," but neither the 
reading, the music, nor the friendship could have the 
power, notwithstanding his desire for it, to give him 
patience and put him in a good humor again: "We 
undergo, every day, horrible scenes; I am so tired of 
it that I should prefer begging my bread to living 
longer in the position in which I am placed." He had 
a queer manner of speaking of a danger that the king 
had passed through: " A thumb's width more, and the 
kinoj would have been drowned witli all the bao-jxaixe." '•^'^ 

The critical points on the subject of the marriages, 
to which we must return, had recommenced; the king 
did not cease to lose his temper. Frederick saw "that 
there was no possible hope for a reconciliation" be- 
tween his father and himself, and wished only for a 



182 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

"suspension of invectives." He made an attenij^t to 
obtain this twice; not daring to speak to the king, he 
wrote. He excused himself, first of all, for not seek- 
ing his dear father for fear that he would receive a 
worse welcome than usual, and that the petition he 
was going to make would irritate him. He begged him 
then by letter to be more gracious. He assured the 
king that in his conscience, most carefully examined, 
he found nothing with which to reproach himself. If 
he had done, without knowing or desiring it, anything 
that would offend his papa, he very humbly implored 
his pardon. He hoped that his dear papa would re- 
nounce this cruel hatred (cjrausamen Sass) that he 
showed in his manner and action. He could not resign 
himself, after always believing that he had a gracious 
father, to the idea that the contrary could be true. 
He had, then, the hope and confidence that his dear 
papa would reflect upon all this and become again 
gracious to him; in any case he assured him that, even 
in disgrace, he was, with a very humble and filial re- 
spect for his dear papa, his most obedient son and 
servitor. This language, so humble with servile cir- 
cumlocutions, exasperated the king, who in turn took 
up his pen and, as he was glad to have the opportunity 
to say what he had on his mind, poured out all his griefs: 
, " He has," wrote the king, using the disdainful form 
of the third person, "a willful, wicked head; he does 
not love his father. A son who loves his father does 
the will of that father, not only in his presence, but 
even when he is not there to see him. He ^ knows 
well that I cannot bear an effeminate boy, who has 



FATHER AND SON. 1S8 

not a single manly inspiration, who does not know 
how to mount a horse, nor shoot, who is decidedly 
untidy about his person, does not cut his hair and 
has it curled like a fool's. And Avith all this a grand 
air of a proud seignior, speaking to no one, or to 
such or such a personage, and is neither affable nor 
popular. He makes grimaces as if he were ' a fool. 
He never does my will except by force. He does 
nothing through filial love. He has no other pleasure 
than to follow his own inclination. This is my aiy 
swer."'3i 

This was the correspondence between father and son, 
under the roof of Wusterhausen, from one room to 
the other. About six weeks passed. The days became 
darker and darker; the scenes became more frequent; 
then the prirce tried heroic means. It was again at 
Wusterhausen; they celebrated the feast of St. Hubert 
that the king loved to commemorate in a gay manner, 
Frederick was seated o})posite his father and mother, 
by the side of Suhm, Minister of Saxony. Contrary to 
his custom he began to drink excessively. " I am sure 
I will be sick to-morrow," said he to Suhm. Very 
soon the wine began to take effect; he complained to 
his neighbor of his slavish life. He .begged him to 
procure through the intervention of the King of Poland, 
his permission to travel. He spoke so loud that he 
could be heard on the other side of the table. The 
queen became uneasy and made a sign to Suhm 
to calm him, but the prince talked on and, pointing 
to the king, he repeated, "However I love himi " 
''What did he say?" asked the king of Sulim. The 



184 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

minister answered that the prince was drunk and not re- 
sponsible for what he said. "Bah! " replied the king, 
"He is only pretending, but what did he say?" "The 
prince said that although the king forced him to drink 
too much he loved him." " He is only pretending," 
said the king again. Suhm gave his word of honor 
that the prince was really drunk. "I have just pinched 
him," he said, "and he did not feel it." For 
a moment Fritz remained quiet, but soon began 
again. The queen retired; Suhm advised the prince 
to go to bed; the prince answered that he would not 
leave until he had kissed his father's hand. The king, 
who enjoyed the scene, extended his hand, laughing; 
the prince demanded the other; he covered them with 
kisses and drew his father to him. The whole as- 
sembly burst into applause. Then Fritz made the 
tour of the table, threw himself on his knees before 
his father, embraced him affectionately and talked in- 
cessantly. He declared that he loved him with all 
his heart, that he had been maligned by people who 
were interested in creating this family disturbance, 
that he would love and serve the king all his life, 
"Good, good!" said the king, "Just so; he is a man 
of honor." All were saddened by this scene, and tears 
came into their eyes. Finally the prince was led away.^"^^ 
In the evening at the tuhagie they noticed that the 
king was very gay. Fritz to begin drinking, to get 
drunk! This was a novelty. Is the boy beginning to 
acquire "manly traits?" But the father could scarce- 
ly believe in such a rapid transformation. They per- 
suaded him that the prince was playing a comedy, a 
thing that was possible, and even probable. 



FATHER AND SON. 185 

The forced witnesses to tliis family life could no 
longer support the spectacle. The preceptors, Fink- 
enstein and Kalkstein, insisted upon being dismissed. 
It was granted them in March, 1729. The king at- 
tached two new officers to his son's suite: Colonel von 
Rochow and Lieutenant von Keyserlingk."^ The first 
he chose for his serious character, the second because 
he was more "alert." In an instruction to Rochow 
he stated that the prince loved but the pleasures 
and occupations of an idler. The Colonel must there- 
fore represent to him " that all effeminate, lascivious 
pursuits were very unbecoming to a man; they Avere 
good only for dandies and fops, but a dandy was an 
empty-headed, silly dressed-up doll. . . . The 
prince in his walk, laugh and language was affected. 
He did not hold himself erect on horseback. Now, 
anyone who hangs his head between his shoulders and 
who is unsteady in his carriage, is but an old rag. 
Rochow must pull off his nightcap and give him more 
energy. The prince was too pretentious; he must be 
taught to be polite and obliging to everybody; he 
must be inspired with a sincere, good disposition, 
be led to question people, both high and low, for 
that is the way to learn everything and become clev- 
er." Finally the king ordered that his son should con- 
tinue his accustomed regime of prayers and readings of 
the Holy Gospel, and that he should obey in the future 
voluntarily — of his own free will — not with a sour face, 
for obeying with a sour face was not obeying. To 
be brief, Rochow must employ every means possible 
to make the prince a brave boy, an honest man, an 



186 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

officer. If he did not succeed it would be a great mis- 
fortune. ^^* 

It was a great misfortune, for Rochow did not suc- 
ceed any better than bis predecessors. 

THE RESUMPTION OF THE MARRIAGE XEGOTIATIOXS. 

At tbe time of the two attempts of Frederick to 
bave a reconciliation with bis fatber, tbe intrigues in 
regard to tbe double marriage bad begun tbeir course 
again, and were soon complicated in a .broil witb 
Hanover. ^^^ Ten Hanoverians baving been carried off 
and incorporated into tbe service of Prussia, tbe Prus- 
sian recruiters were arrested in Hanover. In tbe mean- 
wbile, tbe Prussian peasants bad cut and carried off tbe 
bay from a prairie on tbe frontier, tbe possession of 
wbicb was^ contested by Hanover and Brandenburg ; 
tbe Hanoverian peasants went after tbis bay and took 
it back to tbeir barns. Tbis was as grave a matter as 
tbe Rabelaisian quarrel of tbe cake-bakers of Lerne, 
but Frederick William lost patience at tbe least op- 
position tbat came from bis brotber-in-law of England ; 
his sensitiveness about tbe rights of his recruiters was 
extreme ; and then too, Europe was in one of h^r 
crises from whence a general conflict could, ensue. 
From Vienna, where they believed everything was in 
readiness for war, they stirred up "tbe Prussian fire 
so as to cook tbeir eggs."^^^ The king furious, and as 
usual irresolute, was in a continual storm. His fits of 
ofout came on at the same time. 

o 

Upon tbis basis of calamities, this anger and suffer- 
ing, was founded the matrimonial comedy. 



FATHER AND SON. 187 

It was, as Wilhelmina said, always "the same song." 
The king desired to liave from England a categorical 
response. As soon as he arrived at Wusterhausen, in 
the autumn of 1^828, he declared to the queen that it 
was time, "to ring the bell in regard to Wilhelmina, 
and find out what the English intended to do, for he 
was not going to be their dupe any longer." So, 
"you write immediately for them to send you posi- 
tive word as to what hold I have on' them in this 
matter, because I will take other measures." The 
queen wrote in the most pathetic manner, to her sister- 
in-law, the Queen of England. She only received 
from her vague answers. She was ^assured, in October, 
of the certainty of the desire to conclude the alli- 
aii^ce and to restore harmony to the two Courts ; 
but, in December, they announced to her, that if they 
finally resolved upon the marriage of Wilhelmina, it 
would be "only on condition that the prince, her 
brother, would be married at the same time." Now 
the King of Prussia wished to establish his daughter, 
but would not enter into any negotiations in regard 
to his son.. 

He found the j^rince too young, and did not care 
about having a daughter-in-law princess who was a 
grande dame accustomed to the luxuries of an opulent 
Qpurt. He feared to emancipate his son, and still 
more to give him a pleasure. He turned then a deaf 
ear to these propositions, and as the queen, "one niglit 
when they were both awake, profited by this moment 
to ask him for an agreeable answer to the propositions 
coming from London, he rudely repulsed her and 



188 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

commenced to abuse her and the English, in terms 
that would make modesty blush. He added, that the 
English acted for her alone, and not for him, and that 
her son whom she loved so dearly, was nothing but a 
knave who wished to escape through marriage, but 
he knew w^ell enough how to hold him.'"^^ It must be 
admitted that he judged rightly of the disposition of 
both his son and England w^ho really seemed to act 
only through sympathy for the Queen of Prussia. 
- During the whole year of 1729, the negotiations 
'm^de slow progress, the condition of general politics 
preventing any connected measures being taken. The 
twt) parties remained in their respective positions: the 
Court of London stood firm for the double alliance, 
the King of Prussia demanding a declaration for 
Wilhelmina alone, threatening to marry her, whether 
or no, 'if he did not receive satisfaction. He had a 
list of aspirants ready, whose names he flung at the 
queen on all occasions. She tried to gain time and 
was always "waiting for answers from England," which 
arrived, but she dared not show them. Seckendorff 
and Grumbkow circumvented the king more and more. 
They pushed their treason so far as to corrupt Reich- 
enbach, Prussia's own Minister at the Court of London; 
they made him work against these marriages, and 
guided him through information given about the 
scandalous proceedings at the Prussian Court. 

The Queen, Frederick and Wilhelmina, continued 
their secret policy. We no longer know so much 
about their actions since the departure of Rottenburg 
from Berlin; Sauveterre, who took his place, was a 



FATHER AND SON. 189 

minor personage, not so well known in court circles, 
less enterprising, and even timid. He, however, kept 
up his relations with the ministers friendly to France, 
particularly with Cnyphausen, who gave him authentic 
information. He was in regular confidential inter- 
course with the English Minister, who was the queen's 
greatest resource. ^^^ The dispatches of the two minis- 
ters show, that the prince and queen intrigued at Lon- 
don, as well as Seckendorff and Grumbkow, without 
the king's knowledge. 

The Queen related to Du Bourgay the conversations^' 
with her husband, showed him the letters that she wrote, 
and charged him with expediting the news to his gov- 
ernment ; she even proposed to dictate these dispatches. 
Cnyphausen and Du Bourgay rightly declined to offici- 
ate in this way. Then "she took out her handkerchief 
and began to cry." "Must I be always unhappy," said 
she, "and will they never have compassion upon me4n 
England?" She also invoked the compassion of France ; 
she requested Sauveterre to solicit the good offices of 
his court with England " in the sorrowful situation in 
which she was placed." She could not say more, 
through the precautions she was obliged to take, but 
the only way she saw of saving herself was by the aid 
of the Court of France. 

France responded: "Assure the queen that we feel 
sensitively her situation ; we will carry out all the plans 
that seem desirable to her." They ordered Sauveterre, 
"to learn from the queen herself, so as to regulate 
the proceedings better, the progress of the means she 
continued to employ to vanquish the obstacles that she 



190 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

encountered in trying to obtain the object of her de- 
sires." The queen hastened to show her gratitude. 
She was " very sensible to this friendship shown her, 
upon which she had always relied. It was a great com- 
fort in her trouble to be assured of it. . . She 
would never relax her friendship for France and would 
rear the prince with the sentiment of gratitude that he 
must certainly show some day." Sophia Dorothea 
believed herself far superior to the diplomacy of her 
husband, and all others. As if the whole world must 
agree to satisfy "the ambition of her daughter, who 
was early instilled with the hope of marrying the 
Prince of Wales," she said, that she was tired of see- 
ing Wilhelmina the mark for such and such an un- 
worthy pctrti^ and concluded with this menace: "If 
you do not make them leave me in peace I will turn all 
Europe upside down." This haughtiness, this obsti- 
nacy, and the awkward mistakes she committed, the 
art in which she excelled, of badly placing her confi- 
dences, drove her accomplices and allies to despair. 
Du Bourgay and Sauveterre accused her of spoiling 
everything. "She repulsed the persons that were 
attached to her" and "precipitated" their plans too 
much; "she is," said Cnyphausen, "unhappy through 
her own fault. "^39 

On the list of the king's aspirants was the Margrave 
of Schwedt, a Brandenburg prince, a branch of the 
family of the Great Elector. This projected alliance 
greatly horrified the queen and her daughter, and lit- 
tle pleased the family of the young Margrave: his 
mother, to whom the king "paid a visit in order to 



FATHER AND SON. 191 

make the offer of marriage," returned thanks for the 
great honor, but made excuses on account of the pain 
it would give to the queen and the royal princess, 
"who had been reared with the idea of wearing a 
crown." Afterwards, she had explanations with the 
queen, telling her that she infinitely dreaded this fine 
marriao^e for her son: "The kincr will not sjive more 
than thirty thousand crowns for dot. He will treat his 
son-in-law as a vassal and a subject. He will have him 
watched, to spy over his conduct toward his wife. 
And what will happen, when the Crown Prince comes to 
the throne? He will be my son's enemy; it will be much 
better for him to wait ; he can easily find a dot of two 
hundred thousand crowns." The king addressed himself 
also to Prince Anhalt, uncle of the Margrave; Anhalt 
politely refused. It was fear of Frederick's resentment 
that caused this reserve in Schwedt's family. The 
Crown Prince confirms it in the following expressions. 
He wrote to Prince Anhalt, "through the means of a 
faithful friend," to say that if he prevented the mar- 
riage, he could count "upon his gratitude to him and 
his family, which he would consider as his own." 

Frederick had a secret correspondence with the 
English Court; he received letters from the Prince of 
Wales by safe means. He found a way to conciliate 
the opposing inclinations of the two courts. England 
wished the double marriage, the King of Prussia the 
singjle one. If Enojland would be contented, for the 
nonce, with the union of Wilhelmina and the Prince of 
Wales, the prince would give his word, and he reiter- 
ated it in writing, that "on his honor, he would never 



192 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

marry any one but the Princess Amelia;" he promised 
this without the knowledge and against the will of his 
father. He also thought that the politics of his father 
did not affect himJ*° In the month of August, 1729, at 
the time when war with Hanover was so imminent that 
forty thousand Prussians were mobilized, the prince, who 
was in the ranks of the army, ready for the march, 
' ' passed his assurances of friendship secretly to England 
and the Prince of Wales, saying that he was confident 
of the justice that they always rendered to his senti- 
ments, notwithstanding the then present crisis."^" 

The king did not know of all this definitely. A man, 
a" king, could he imagine it possible to be duped to this 
extent? One of his ministers, Cnyphausen, betrayed 
his secrets to France and England ; another, Grumb- 
kow, sold them to Austria, and employed against his 
master "his own envoy that he sent to London. The 
queen and the Crown Prince negotiated against him. 
It' was, perhaps, the strangest cross-purpose intriguing 
ever known. Frederick William, though, divined a 
part of the truth: "I know, you little rascal, all that 
you are doing to withdraw yourself from my rule, but 
it is in vain for you to think that you will succeed," 
said he to his son. He added: "I am going to keep 
thee in leading strings and mortify thee a little while 
longer." And the Court of Prussia became a Hades, 
where everybody endured the torments of the damned. 

The queen was always in faints, tears, or anger. At 
one period, when she was pressed hard by the king for 
the answers from England, she "resolved to fall sick." 
She ''began by complaining in the morning, and to 



FATHER AND SON. 193 

make it more effective, she pretended to faint." Several 
days she kept up these simulations; then she became 
really ill, and as she was expecting to be confined, her 
peril was great. The king, who was at Potsdam, be- 
lieved at first it was only a little game. At last, sum- 
moned by special courier, he returned. As soon as he 
saw her, his suspicions vanished ; he cried, sobbed, 
made excuses for the sorrow he had caused her, and 
left her in peace for a few days; but these calm mo- 
ments were rare, and the quarrels recommenced. 

The king incessantly reproached the queen with the 
conduct of his two elder children. He expressed his 
anger one day by way of a cruel reminiscence. Ad- 
dressing himself to Wilhelmina and the Crown Prince, 
he said : " You should curse your moth'er; it is she who 
has been the cause of your being badly governed. I 
had a preceptor who was an honest man. I will al- -^ 
ways remember a story that he related to me in my 
youth. * There was a man at Carthage who was con- 
demned to death, for several crimes that he had com- 
mitted. As they were conducting him to his punisli- 
ment he asked to be allowed to speak with his mother. 
They ordered her to approach. He drew quite near, as 
if he were going to speak low to her, and tore off her 
ear with his teeth. "I treat you thus," said he to his 
mother, "that you may serve as an example to all par- 
ents who have not reared their children in tlie practice 
of virtue."' Now, you can a})ply this to yourselves. "'^■- 

The queen inspired pity in everybody. It was said 
that she could not reach the end of her confinement. 
"The child tliat she carries," wrote Sauveterre, "is one 



194 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

of sorrow." The Court of France already mourned for 
her: "We shall earhestly regret the Qjiieen of Prussia; 
she will be an irreparable loss to her family. "^*^ In even 
more compassionate accents, the court, the city, the for- 
eigners, sympathized with the Crown Prince upon his 
fate, for the queen was not beloved ; but Frederick per- 
sisted in all the customs odious to his father.- He said 
that his uniform was "his shroud," and the word, re- 
peated by some spy, entered like a poisoned arrow 
into the heart of the king, who revenged himself upon 
a dressing-gown of gold brocade, which he found his 
son wearing, by throwing it in the fire with a great 
burst of anger. Frederick, at last, according to his 
sister's Memoirs, accustomed himself to a bad life. One 
of the king's pages, named Keith, was the instrument 
through which he carried on his debauchery. This 
young man had found a way of insinuating himself 
into the, prince's good graces, and was passionately be- 
loved and made a most intimate confidant. Freder- 
ick had "familiarities" with him that Wilhelmina 
judged improper: he excused himself, saying "that 
the page served him as a spy, and rendered him great 
services." The king, to whom this Keith appeared sus- 
picious, sent him as an officer to a regiment tliat was 
quartered in Cleves. As friends, accomplices and confi- 
dants were necessary to Frederick, Keith was replaced 
by Lieutenant Katte, "whose look had something 
"foreboding in it."^** We will soon hear again of Lieu- 
tenant Keith and Lieutenant Katte. 

In order to pay for his forbidden pleasures, and also 
for his books and music, Frederick made debts. The 



FATHER AND SON. ll>5 

father was informed of this through the claims of a 
creditor, to whom he owed seven thousand thalers. He 
did not become angry, as one would suppose ; he spoke 
like a rich miser: " It is not money that I lack," and he 
offered to pay "with pleasure, if his son would change 
his conduct and become an honest man." But the rev- 
elation of the creditor had undoubtedly aff.ected him. 
He published an edict against loans to minors, stating 
that whoever loaned money to minors of the royal fam- 
ily would be condemned to hard labor, and even to 
death, according to circumstances. The act committed 
by Frederick was, in his eyes, a real crime, added to all 
those for which he had already been reproached.'*^ 

It was a crime, and one not the least grave, to practice 
French witticism, to make'"5c»is mots,'''' smd assume a 
mocking air. Frederick and Wilhelmina made fun of. 
their father in their tete-a-tetes, that still continued> 
Wilhelmina became very ill about the first part of the 
year 1729. Her mother, who understood these feigned 
illnesses, supposed, in the beginning of it, that this 
was a little comedy. She forced her to arise, and 
then led her to the king, who saw that she was very 
much changed, and thinking, to cure her, compelled 
her to drink a. goblet of strong old Rhine wine. This 
made her delirious. It was treated, at the outset, as 
a high fever, until smallpox was developed. She was 
then shut up, like a prisoner of State, badly cared for 
by a chambermaid, and deserted by all excei)t her 
brother. The prince, who had had the smallpox, made 
her two secret visits a day. They charmed their con- 
versations with slander. 



196 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

Wilhelmina acknowledged that they made use, above 
all, of satire, and "that the neighbor was not spared." 
They had read together the Roman Gomique of Scar- 
ron, and they applied it to their enemies of the "Impe- 
rial clique." They called Grumbkow La Rancune 
(Rancor), Seckendorff, La Rapiniere (Pilferer), and the 
Prince of Schwedt, Saldagne. The queen had for first- 
lady-in-waiting a - very worthy woman, named Mad- 
ame de Kamken : "Although we esteemed this lady 
highly," said Wilhelmina, "we could not helj) seeing her 
ridiculous side and amusing ourselves with her. As 
she was very corpulent, and her figure resembled Madame 
Bouvillon, we gave her that name. We often indulged 
in this fun in her presence, which made her curious to 
know who this Madame Bouvillon was of whom we 
talked so much. My brother made her believe that she 
was the principal lady-in-waiting of the Queen of Spain. 
After our return to Berlin, one day, during a court draw- 
ing-room, the Spanish Court was spoken of, and she gave 
the information that all the Camerera Mayors were from 
the family of Bouvillon. They laughed at her out- 
right, and, for my part, I thought I would suffocate." 
This gayety, French fashion, these witty farces, these 
"conundrums," were odious to the king, who had a dif- 
ferent kind of humor, and liked only that raillery that 
he practiced himself. He must have suspected that he 
had his share in these quibbles. His children, among 
themselves, called him by a name that they also found 
in the Roman: "We named the king, Ragotin."'*^ 

Wilhelmina related both the comical and tragical 
scenes. Once, the king, on returning from the hunt, 



FATHER AND SON. 197 

came near surprising them in the queen^s apartments, 
where they had been forbidden to go. Fritz rushed to 
an adjacent toilet-room, and the princess crept under 
the queen's bed, which was very low. They remained 
in their hiding-places the whole time that the king was 
resting in an arm-chair, where, from fatigue, he had 
fallen asleep. Another time he threw plates at the 
heads of his children. The diniler finished, as Wilhel- 
mina was passing by him, he aimed a hard blow at 
her with his crutch, which she managed to evade. He 
was then having one of his spells of gout, and had 
himself rolled about in an arm-chair. Sometimes he 
would follow Wilhelmina "in, this chariot," but those 
who were pushing the chair gave her time to get out of 
the way.^^^ However, he had not yet actually struck 
his daughter. He had struck only Frederick, but he 
struck him more and more frequent. Upon this point 
the testimony of Wilhelmina is authoritatively con- 
firmed by others. For some time the king had beaten 
his son, but his brutalities were more odious as his 
child grew to be a young man, and had the conscious- 
ness and pride of his dignity as Crown Prince. In De- 
cember, 1729, the king went to the greatest extremes of 
violence. As the prince was entering his room one 
day, the king beat him with a cane, caught him by the 
throat and hair, threw him down, and forced him to 
kiss his feet and beg his pardon. These atrocious 
scenes were continually recurring. The king spread 
before the eyes of officers, generals, his household, 
everybody, the humiliation of his son, and he defied 
and insulted him in his misery: "Any other officer," 



198 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

said he, "who is displeased with the king's aspect to- 
ward him can receive his dismissal, but thou, the prince, 
art obliged to remain." He went so far as to forbid his 
son all hope of a better fate. He announced to him 
that he intended becoming more and more severe each 
day: " You know," acfded he, "that I keep my word." ^*^ 

In this way he j^rovoked and forced Frederick to put 
into execution a sche«ie that had been in his head for 
a long time. "I have some reason to believe," wrote 
Rottenburg, in July, 1728, "that he meditates flight, al- 
though I have seen him form the project before. It is 
also uncertain as to whether he intends going to France 
or England." They feared to see him arrive in France. 
" In whatever place the prince sees fit to retire, byre- 
turn of courier, there will undoubtedly be a very em- 
barrassing state of aif airs. " ^*^ But the prince did not care 
about the embarrassment in which he ])laced others, nor 
of the certain peril to which this flight would expose his 
mother and sister. Whatever may have been his faults, 
he could no longer support the ignominy of his existence. 
At each fresh scene he nil^ist have had a wish to end it 
all. The idea became a flxed one the latter part of the 
year of 1729. The king, who had suspicions of it, 
recommended Colonel Rochow to redouble his surveil- 
lance. 

Frederick was, in reality, watching for his opportu- 
nity, and he had confided his plans to his sister. One 
evening Wilhelmina, (after having bidden him good- 
night in the queen's apartments, and retired to her 
room,) was making preparations to go to bed, when 
she saw a young man enter, dressed magnificently in 



FATHER AND SON. J 99 

the French fashion. Sh^ uttered a loud cry, and hid 
herself behind a screen. Her governess ran to her res- 
cue, and soon brought out Frederick, who laughed 
heartily, and, in the gayest humor possible,. announced 
that he was going .away sdon, never to return. When 
she recovered from her first emotion, Wilhelmina re- 
monstrated with him at the impossibility of this step 
and its frightful consequences. She threw herself at his 
feet, cried, and forced him to give his word that he- 
would not undertake it. He gave his word, but it was 
from the lips only.^^*^ He was in haste ta depart, to 
breathe at last free air in a foreign country. But a 
singular incident is going to lead, for awhile, the minds 
of this strange family in another direction. 

THE MISSIOTf OF SIR CHARLES HOTHAM. 

In the month of December, 1729, the King of Prus- 
sia once more , exacted that the queen should obtain a 
definite answer from England. Sophia Dorothea wrote 
then an official letter to her sister-in-law. Queen Caro- 
line, "to make known to her that if the Court of Eng- 
land still thought of the marriage of the Prince of 
Wales with the eldest Princess of Prussia, it was time 
to conclude this alliance, but without any condition ; 
there were other desirable parties for this princess who 
would not be neglected, except for this negotiation.'' '^^ 
The answers were not more satisfactory than usual. 
Then the king showed a resolution to end it. 

From Potsdam, where he was at the time, he began 
an official correspondence with the queen. He first ex- 
pedited a summons, then sent an ambassador of State, 



200 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

Grambkow, to her. This minister argued at length 
with the queen; following the example of the devil 
when he wished to tempt our Saviour, he pretended to 
deduce his reasons from the Holy Scriptures, quoting 
2)assages the most applicable to the subject in question. 
He represented to her that fathers had more right over 
their children than mothers, and that, when the parents 
could not agree, the children should preferably obey 
the father; that the father was always in a position to 
employ force, and, finally, the queen would commit a 
wrong, on her side, if she did not accede to this method 
of reasoning. This princess refuted the last argument 
by the opposing example of Bethuel, who answered the 
proposition of marriage made to him by Abraham's 
servant for Isaac: " We will call the damsel, and in- 
quire at her mouth. "^^^ After this she argued, in order 
to repulse the propositions of sons-in-law which he made 
to her. 

Grumbkow letting escape a kind of menace, when he 
said, "they would see how it would all end," she 
could restrain herself no longer, and, addressing him 
"in her character of Queen of Prussia, treating him as 
her servitor, she said that it was unpardonable for him 
to speak thus to her, that the Lord would punish him 
for it, and she gave him her malediction. " As Grumb- 
kow tried to retract his words, and to advise her to, 
at least, use some diplomacy in her reply to the king : 
"Go," she responded; "I know your expediency and 
your cowardice. You are nothing but a knave." ^^^ For 
this day the queen was relieved, but this was a mere 
passing gratification. The king insisted, urged. 



FATHER AND SON. 201 

stormed. Sophia Dorothea thought that all was lost, 
when, in March of the year 1730, the undecided state of 
the differences between Prussia and England came at 
last to a definite settlement, the two crowns accepting 
arbitration. 

The royal family of England wished to give the 
Queen of Prussia a proof of its good will and compas- 
sion. An Envoy Extraordinary was announced, who 
carried the response to the letter of the preceding De- 
cember. The king, in spite of his pretensions to the 
contrary, was, nevertheless, very much flattered at the 
attentions they showed him. In reality, he was still 
eager for this marriage of his daughter with the Prince 
of Wales, provided that it did not complicate embar- 
rassing conditions for him. He would have given the 
other aspirants their dismissal long ago, if he had re- 
ceived from London some positive assurance. London 
appeared finally to decide, and even to give some lustre 
to her penitence by sending a minister of high standing. 
Sir Charles Hotham, the expected envoy, wag of a no- 
bility that dated back to the Conqueror, a brother-in-law 
of Lord Chesterfield, and, in order to please Frederick 
William, Colonel of the Mounted Grenadiers of His 
Britannic Majesty. The King of Prussia, with the 
promptness that he usually gave to his moods, chaHged 
his humor from one day to the next. He invited Du 
Bourgay, the Minister of England, to the tahagie, 
drank to King George, and omitted the health of the 
Emperor. The household was at peace once more. 
The queen became better and better, "and had some 
hope of safe deliverance." 



S02 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

Sir Charles Hotham arrived on the second of April. 
The fourth, he was invited to dine at Charlottenburg 
with the king , the queen, who was about to be confined, 
was at Berlin, with her children. The king, before 
dining, had an interview with Sir Charles Hotham, and, 
without any preamble, declared himself "charmed that 
his daughter should be found agreeable to the King of 
England, who could also dispose of his son whenever it 
so pleased him, and that she (Wilhelmina) would con- 
tribute none the less to his satisfaction through the sen- 
timents for him with which she had been reared." 
The dinner was very gay. They spoke of the second 
daughter of the king, who was about to be married to 
the Margrave of Anspach. Suddenly the king cried out: 
' ' Girls must be married ! To the health of Wilhel- 
mina and the Prince of Wales ! " There was great sur- 
prise, for no one knew that affairs had gone so far. 
Grumbkow, seated near the Chevalier, who was at the 
king's right, leaned toward his master and said : "Are 
you to be congratulated, Sire?" "Yes," replied the 
king ; and everybody arose and went to salute him, as 
was the custom in this court, by embracing his knees 
or kissing the hem of His Majesty's coat. Hotham was 
astonished at the toast, the tumult, and, more than all, 
at the king's speech afterward. He said that "his daugh- 
ter was ugly and pock-marked, but, with these exceptions, 
an honest girl, who would be true, and would satisfy 
her husband, although, generally speaking, his idea was 
that all women were capable of loving ; and, if they 
had only desired to have her three years before, they 
would have found her more beautiful." They drank 



FATHER AND SON. ^0^ 

excessively at this dinner J'* They made coarse jokes on 
the exchanoje of the German ducat and Enojlish half- 
guinea. They ended with dancing ; even tlie servants 
cut capers. As a good father, the king thought of 
Wilhelmina's joy. He would like to have it noised 
abroad that all was over between them, so as to agreea- 
bly surprise his daughter. "Be so good as to remain 
quiet," said he to Sir Charles Hotham, "until I go to the 
city. I should like to go before you and ask my daugh- 
ter's consent." 

The chevalier demanded nothing better than to re- 
main quiet, for he "was not accustomed to this vivaci- 
ty." He could not believe his ears nor his eyes, and 
was exceedingly embarrassed, for his mission was to 
negotiate for the double marriage. It is true, the Court 
of England, "in consideration of the delicate condition 
of the Queen of Prussia," permitted him to agree to the 
one marriage immediately, but with the understanding 
that there should be a promise made between the Crown 
Prince of Prussia and the Princess Amelia. This latter 
clause in the mission. Sir Charles was to gently insin- 
uate, not on his immediate arrival, but in his own 
time and choosing his own hour. He did not foresee 
this abrupt toast at the. dinner. And now, where to 
find the means, since it had begun, of slipping in a re- 
striction, of stopping this knee-embracing procession 
toward His Majesty, of throwing cold water upon this 
sarabande? The chevalier would have been even more 
restless, had he heard Grumbkow at dinner, after the 
first question: "Must we congratulate you, Sire?" And, 
in an undertone: "And offer congratulations for both 
marriages, Sire?" And the king's res])onse: "No.""* 



204 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

The next day Sir Charles Hotham was called to a con- 
ference of ministers, who asked him at once if he had 
full power to regulate the dot and the contract. Decid- 
edly, he found that they were going quickly to work. 
He began by stating that he must, first of all, touch on 
the conversation exchanged between His Majesty and 
himself in written words, and transmit it to his court. 
At the same time, he would write for his king's permis- 
sion to treat directly upon the subject. 

This was enough to give the adverse faction, which 
had been at first unarmed, new courage. It had dreaded 
beforehand this mission extraordinary, and tried hard to 
prevent its effects. Grumbkow had written to Reichen- 
bach, in order to dictate to him the tone and matter of 
his correspondence. Reichenbach must not fail to give 
notice at London, the report that the King of Prussia 
was working to gain some profit from England, through 
the ministers at Berlin and through other "secret 
means." This " secret 'means " referred to the queen's 
faction, the queen herself and her children. To the 
end that his accomplice should appear well-informed, 
Grumbkow gave him information about "things in 
Berlin." "The king," he said, "will take you for a 
sorcerer, and double the good opinion he has of you." 
Among other pieces of news, he related this: "The 
mother of the Crown Prince is always pretending to be 
very sick, but if affairs were adjusted that is to say, 
the marriage concluded, you would see her on her feet 
again." He promised Reichenbach, in order to reassure 
him against the dangers of the game, that the king 
would never abandon him. The king, it is true, might 



FATHER AND SON. 205 

die, and the Crown Prince would not fail to avenge 
himself on his enemies, but this event was foreseen: 
"If the Crown Prince comes to the throne, you will 
be provided for at Vienna," said he to Reichenbach. 
Grumbkow had also arranged for his own retreat 
to Vienna. Should danger threaten, the "Imperial 
clique" at the Court of Berlin could defile into 
Austria. 

Reichenbach followed Gru^mbkow's instruction to the 
letter. He made known, one day, to the King of Prus- 
sia, the dissolute conduct of the Prince of Wales, to 
whom Wilhelmina was destined ; this prince ruined his 
health in debauchery with actresses and chorus girls of 
the opera. Another time he touched the most sensitive 
spot, in writing that the Court of England sought only 
to make of Prussia a dependent province, and that, 
"the marriage accomplished, there would be at Berlin 
a party that would tie the king's hands." ''^*^ 

These dispatches had been exchanged before the ar- 
rival of Sir Charles Hotham at Berlin. They did not 
prevent the king from receiving the envoy well, but they 
certainly troubled him. As early as the next day after 
the famous dinner he forbade his ministers to treat of 
the double marriage; "I do not wish to hear of the 
double marriage; besides, there is no question of it in my 
wife's letter." As soon as he knew that Sir Charles Ho- 
tham was using means for delay he began to be restless, 
realizing that his joy had been premature; and he 
interdicted the i)ublic discussion of this niarriage, that 
he himself had been so ])r()m])t to ])ublisli. I^ut the 
news was soon spread abroad. The same evening of 



206 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

the dinner at Charlottenburg it had been carried to the 
Palace of Berlin to the queen and princess: "I was 
quietly occupied in my room at a piece of work," wrote 
Wilhelmina, ' ' while listening to a reading, when one of 
the queen's ladies-in-waiting, followed by numerous do- 
mestics, interrupted me, and, all of them throwing 
themselves on their knees, cried in my ears that they 
had come to salute the Princess of Wales. I truly 
thought that they had lost their senses. Then all 
talked at once, cried, laughed, jumped up and down, 
and surrounded me. Then came my sisters, who em- 
braced me, and offered their congratulations." Wilhel- 
mina went to the queen, who, in her joy, called her 
'*'My dear Princess of. Wales," and gave Sonsfeld 
the title of "First lady-in- waiting to my lady.'''' If we 
^re to believe Wilhelmina, she remained cold and pass- 
ive in the midst of this enthusiasm. She was so little 
moved by the congratulations that she continued her 
work, saying: "Is it only that?" It would have been 
feigning sentiments that she did not possess if she had 
appeared to ignore the happiness so ardently desired, 
but her joy was mixed with some uneasiness. This was 
not the first time that her mother had called her ' ' the 
Princess of Wales," and the disillusion did not fail to 
appear. Before actually rejoicing, there must be at 
least, some declaration from the king. Nothing came 
of it the next day. The day after, the king was in Ber- 
lin, and "no mention was made of what had come to 
pass."^^^ 

However, Frederick William, notwithstanding he 
wrote on the request for an interview sent by Sir 



FATHER AND SON, 207 

Charles Hotham : "This does not mean the double mar- 
riage?" consented to treat with him in a tete-a-tete; 
Hotham prepared his discourse, and the manner of intro- 
ducing in it the double marriage. He even addressed 
the following graceful compliment. He knew that there 
were three kingdoms in Great Britain that awaited her 
with great impatience, but he could assure the king that 
the Prince of Wales' eagerness surpassed all the rest. *^^ 
At the outset all went well. In a first interview with 
the king, at Potsdam, the English Envoy inserted this 
speech, upon which he had meditated. He began by 
recalling the disposition of the King of England in the 
argument upon the subject of recruiters, and the step 
he had taken at that time "to send a minister to treat 
about an affair that touched His Majesty so closely." 
Then he asked if the king did not feel inclined "t6 
give some return for this." He delicately insinuated 
that upon the question of "return" he was not in- 
structed to speak. It was only "through a flow of 
affection and sincere attachment to his king that made 
him speak in this manner." The king understood im- 
mediately what he intended to insinuate, and did not 
get angry; on the contrary, he smiled, and said: "I 
know well enough what you mean to say. I will ma- 
turely consider it. Provide yourself with full power to 
act, and open the question at once; I will give you my 
opinion, and we can negotiate." He gave Sir Charles 
Hotham permission to come to Potsdam the days of the 
hunt, and other days when he had orders from London. 
He was in a fine humor; when they spoke to him of the 
Emperor and Seckendorff he laughed iniiiioderately. In 



208 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

a second intercourse with Sir Charles Hotham, he made 
the tour of Europe, he was still mocking the Emperor, 
and gave away all his confidences, among which was 
found "things that could not be expressed except by 
circumlocutions." Lastly, he charged the Envoy to 
notify the King of England that he did not cherish any 
anger against him, that he had forgotten everything, 
that it was his desire to be on good terms with England, 
and that he had taken the sacrament w^ith this feeling. ^^^ 
What was now passing in the king's mind ? That 
which always passed through it whenever any matter 
presented itself. He wished to see if he could not 
draw out of it "a few shovelfuls of sand." England 
asked for his son; she was very desirous that the Crown 
Prince of Prussia should marry one of her princesses. 
So be it ! But then she must pay for this pleasure, and 
a good price. "If they wish the double marriage, and 
will separate me from the Emperor, let them propose 
something instead of Juliers and Berg."^^'^ And, again, 
he said: "I hate my son, and he hates me. It will be 
a good idea to separate us. They can name him Gov- 
ernor of Hanover with his princess." This last was a 
happy thought. His son, Governor of Hanover, neither 
he nor his wife would be near the king, and the keep- 
ing of the young couple would cost him nothing. The 
Court of London, informed of this latter intention of 
the king, acceded to it at once. It was agreed that the 
Crown Prince of Prussia and his wife should be in- 
stalled as the Governors of Hanover; the Princess 
Amelia would have no other dot than this governorship, 
but EnMaiid did not exact a dot for Wilhelmina. This 



FATHER AND SON. 209 

"without doV must have charmed the king, who did 
not know that England exacted at the same time from 
the Crown Prince the promise to repay her some day for 
the expenses she would incur for him in Hanover. 

Provided with his new instructions, Sir Charles Ho- 
tham solicited an audience, which was granted to him 
on the fourth of May. " He formally demanded of the 
king the hand of the eldest royal princess for the Prince 
of Wales, and he added that His Britannic Majesty,- as 
well as the English nation, desiring to unite more 
closely with the Royal Prussian family, destined one 
of their daughters for the Crown Prince, and the offer 
was made to name this princess Governor of Han- 
over." The king appeared delighted ; he answered 
very amiably that he would deliberate with his ministers 
upon the new proposition made to him. He deliberated 
in fact with his ministers and with himself and eight 
days elapsed before the result was made known. Eight 
days in hesitation, in battling with the pros and cons. 
The cons, being the perpetual difficulty of taking a reso- 
lution : must one unite with England and France at this 
moment, when they are perhaps on the verge of war Avith 
the Emperor? This English Princess, that they wish to 
marry to my son, will be Queen of Prussia some day; 
"she will never habituate herself to the simplicity and 
economy necessary in Prussia; she will spend money ex- 
travagantly; on her account, the army and State will have 
to be diminished, and the House and State will be going 
backward like a crab. " ^^^ Another objection was always 
and eternally, the joy of the Crown Prince: "I hate 
my son," said he. But everybody else did not hate his 
son. Hotham, who saw him at the king's table, wrote 



210 FKEDERICK THE GREAT. 

that he appeared crestfallen, but it moved all to see 
him in this state, for he is charming ; only good is 
spoken of him : " If I am not deceived, he will one 
day cut a y^ry important figure." "^ This important fig- 
ure the king dreaded. The cons, evidently, were 
Wronger than the pros. 

- Grumbkow and Seckendorff did not abandon each 
other. Seckendorff invited the king to dine, and paid 
him long visits. The correspondence between Grumb- 
kow and Reichenbach was at fever-heat. Reichenbach, 
on learning of the reception of Sir Charles Hotham, and 
the story of the dinner at Charlottenburg, was "thunder- 
struck." The English were overjoyed, and he was 
obliged to receive their congratulations on the subject 
of this cursed marriage. The King and Queen of 
England showed their contempt for him. The "big 
coxcomb, " (grand petit maitre) as he called the Prince of 
Wales, did not deign to look at him, no matter how low 
he saluted. Nevertheless, he did not lose courage. His 
letters were full of arguments which Grumbkow knew 
well how to make useful. Sometimes he would insinuate 
that the Hanoverians were not so solid for the throne of 
England, the king was hated more and more each day, 
and the Prince of Wales less beloved by the public, 
since he affected the mannerisms of his father. Again, 
he would dress up the Prince of Wales in a fine garb 
by relating the accounts of his love affairs. The 
Princess Amelia he made out to be an ambitious, proud, 
whimsical, mocking woman. "With the Prince of 
Wales," said he, "the Crown Princess of Prussia will 
have need of all the wisdom of Solomon. As to Ame- 



FATHER AND SON. 211 

lia, she will certainly displease the king." And finally, 
he put the most perfidious weapons in the hands of 
Grumbkow when he revealed the secret engagement 
of Frederick to marry no one but the Princess Amelia : 
"For which reason," added he, "the Queen of -Eng- 
land is willing for the single marriage, as she is sure of 
the future. . . . Everybody says that His Majesty 
of Prussia is led by the nose." ' 

This confidence was worth its weight in gold; Grumb- 
kow knew how to use it with scholarly perfidy. He 
took care not to say that he received this news from 
Reichenbach, whom Sir Charles Hotham was then accus- 
ing of secret maneuvers. In relating it to the king, he 
assured him that it came from one of his spies, a friend 
of Cnyphausen. In this way he refined his lies, making 
the king believe that it was through Cnyphausen that he 
was deceived. This was a master-stroke. The king, 
when learning of his son's correspondence with Eng- 
land, became furious. Grumbkow joyfully wrote word 
of it to Reichenbach. He did not fail to paint up Wil- 
helmina for him for the favor he received in regard to 
the qualities of Amelia. "The king," said he, "wishes 
to get rid of Wilhelmina, because she is ugly, thin, 
blotched and pimpled." In reality, knowing his mas- 
ter, and confiding in the power of his intrigues, he had 
no uneasiness: "As long as the Commander of Pots- 
dam (the king) lives, the Crown Prince will not marry 
an English woman. " ^*^^ 

Grumbkow was certainly present with the king dur- 
ing the week of deliberation, while, upon the point of 
deciding, he was struggling with his doubts. At last, 



212 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

after meditating apon his decision, which he had 
changed two or three times during the forty-eight hours, 
Frederick William made known, orally, his answer to 
Sir Charles Hotham, for, the English having written 
nothing, he would write nothing. He was ready to con- 
clude the marriage of his daughter to the Prince of 
Wales, but he renounced, for his son, the Hanoverian 
combination; besides, he did not desire to marry him 
until the conflict between England and the Emperor was 
amicably arranged, and he reserved to himself the right 
of fixino' the date of the marriao-e. He ended with de- 
manding the guarantee of the succession to the Duchies 
of Berg and Juliers. He could not actually believe that 
these propositions would be accepted. Hotham, in 
transmitting them to his court, declared them shameful ; 
he considered that all was over; this was also the opinion 
of the French Minister: " The propositions from Lon- 
don have been rejected, those of Berlin will not be ac- 
cepted." Seckendorff already had the inside track. ^^* 
The Crown Prince restlessly followed this negotiation, 
wherein his and his sister's destiny were so concerned. 
As soon as he heard that success was doubtful, he wrote 
to Sir Charles Hotham, begging him to be his interpreter 
to the Court of England ; to supplicate the Court for him, 
to accept the propositions of his father, no matter what 
they might be. He again pledged himself to marry no 
one but the Princess Amelia: he would die rather than 
fail in this promise. "It was then useless," said he, ' 'to 
insist upon the double marriage. " The most important 
thing of all, was not to break the present negotiation: 
for, if that was done, his father would not fail to force 



FATHER AND SON. 213 

his sister and himself to contract other marriages. Sev- 
eral clays after this Frederick wrote Sir Charles Ilotham 
a second letter, more urgent, more beseeching, than the 
first. He knew that the king had been informed of his 
secret communications with the Court of England, and 
he was "expecting terrible things." Already he had been 
treated "in an unprecedented manner." The king had 
fully determined not to consent to the double marriage. 
The prince gave the reasons, at the same time regret- 
ting that he should have to say things that "ought to 
be hidden from the whole world." "To speak frankly, 
the true reason that the king does not agree to this mar- 
riage, is that he wishes to always keep me in a lowly 
position, and to enrage me whenever it suits his fancy." 
The prince did not desire to expose the princess to 
sharing such an existence. He thought, then, that it 
would be better to conclude only the marriage of his 
sister, and not to ask the king for further assurances in 
regard to the other: "In any case, his word would be 
worth nothing ; let it suffice that I reiterate the promises 
that I have already made to the king, my uncle. I am 
a person of my word." '^^ _ 

Such letters moved, perhaps, the hearts of the King 
and Queen of England, but the English government was 
not accustomed to act upon motives of sentiment. 
Response came that the relations of England with the 
Emperor and the rights of succession to the Duchies of 
Bero- and Juliers had nothinor to do with the mar- 
riages, which ought to be concluded without politics; 
and the London Cabinet still held to the double mar- 



214 FKEDERICK THE GREAT. 

It was not at Berlin that Sir Charles Hothani com- 
municated the reply of his Court to the King of Prussia. 
He had followed Frederick William into Saxony, 
whither the king had repaired, to be present at the 
fetes of the King of Poland, celebrated at Miihlberg. 
There, in the midst of the spectacle of an army of thirty 
thousand men, parading in new uniforms, and feigning, 
in the smoke of powder, to take the passages of the 
river, feigning, also, combats and assaults; in the crowd 
of princes and 'pettj princes, diplomats, and the curious 
from all parts of Germany; in the great splendor of 
Pantagruelian repasts, a secret drama was being enacted 
between the King of Pru'^sia, the Crown Prince and the 
English Ambassador. Sir Charles Hotham remitted to 
the King of Prussia a written document containing the 
answer of his court. Through means of writing the 
king signified his response. Both sides refused any 
concession. It was then evident that the negotiation 
was going to be broken. Of these parleyings, neither 
the king nor his son said a word, but both were thinking 
of the same thing, and became more and more exasper- 
ated with each other. The prince felt more sensitively 
than ever the shame of his slavery, during these days; 
when honors due his birth, were tendered him by 
assembled Europe. 

Each successive fete was more wonderful than the 
preceding. The last day, King Augustus gave a dinner 
to his army. Thirty thousand men ate and drank at 
two lines of tables; at the extremity of each was a 
trophy, composed of the head of an ox, the skin cover- 
ing as a drapery the roasted quarters of the animal. 



FATHER AND SON. 215 

Between these two files rode their Majesties of Prussia 
and Poland, and their two sons, who were saluted by 
hurrahs, and caps thrown in the air. Then the two 
kings and the two princes took their seats at a table in 
full view of all this great festivity. At their Majes- 
ties' dessert appeared the marvel of the day. A tent, 
guarded by cadets, dropped its canvas, and a cake was 
seen, fourteen ells long and six wide, which had re- 
quired six hundred eggs, three tons of milk, a ton of 
butter, etc., etc. At a given signal from the master 
architect of his Polish Majesty, a carpenter, armed with 
a gigantic knife, the l\andle of which rested on his 
shoulder, made an incision in the sides of this monster. 
The distribution of the cake by the king to the tables 
of the princes and the guests ended the feast. Then the 
colonels and officers of each regiment, preceded by their 
bands of music, swords bared, filed before th^ir Majes- 
ties and the two Highnesses. Each group stopped be- 
fore the table ; to each the king drank a health, 
emptying a glass of wine, and this, too, after drinking 
so many others. The officers also emptied glasses, and 
threw them in the air. Sixty pieces of heavy ar- 
tillery accompanied the toasts. ^*'*^ 

This was a strange, colossal fantasy, a royal debauch 
of merriment. The Crown Prince of Prussia presented 
a sad appearance there. These spectacles were strong 
contrasts to his misery. Many glances were turned to- 
ward him, which he attracted by his charming person- 
ality. He must have thought that all the princes, 
ambassadors and officers knew of his sad history, and 
the ignominious life he led. Never had the king 



216 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

shown such ferocious anger at him as in the camp at 
Mlihlberg. He beat him unmercifully one clay, threw 
him on the ground, and dragged him by the hair. 
Frederick had to a^^pear at parade all in disorder. The 
king added to these blows the most cruel, abusive lan- 
guage; " If I had been treated in this way by my father, 
I would have killed myself, but thou — thou submittest 
to everything!" Finally, he went so far as to summon 
him to renounce the throne. Now, Frederick meant to 
be king ; he was even in haste to become so. Since 
the waiting was impossible to him near his father, he 
resolved to pass it outside of the kingdom. We shall 
soon see that he wished to fly from Mlihlberg, and that 
he charged with a confidential mission Captain Guy 
Dickens, whom Sir Charles Hotham was sending to 
London with the reply of the King of Prussia to the 
response from England. ^^'' 

On leaving Mlihlberg to return to Berlin, where the 
king and the prince arrived July 2nd, Sir Charles Ho- 
tham received, through Guy Dickens, new instructions. 
This messenger had pleaded the cause of Wilhelmina 
and the Crown Prince in England. He had made Eng- 
land consider this alternative: either retard the two 
marriages until they could be celebrated at the same 
time, or conclude the marriage of the Prince of Wales 
and Wilhelmina, and obtain a promise of the other 
from the King of Prussia. The Court of London 
made this concession, and Sir Charles Hotham found 
himself more at ease in taking up again the negotia- 
tions. On the 9th of July he had a conference with 
the king, which lasted four hours. At the last accounts 



FATHER AND SON. 217 

the king declared that he held it to his honor to 
marry his daughter to the Prince of Wales. As 
for his son, when the time came, he would prefer 
an English princess to any other, and the marriage 
would not be delayed longer than ten years. In 
si)eaking thus, was he sincere? He probably thought 
that before ten years should elapse much water would 
jjass under the bridges of the Spree. In Eng- 
land they were not disposed to wait so long. They 
thought "that a promise of the King of Prussia and 
an egg-puff were one and the same thing, and that, to 
prick this prince with generosity, was like pricking an 
old, jaded post-horse already hardened to the spur."^^^ 
The new negotiation would probably not have succeeded 
any better than the preceding ones, but it was vio- 
lently interrupted. 

On the evening of the 9th of July, at the tahagie, 
Grumbkow drew from the king a recital of the conversa- 
tion with Hotham. He remarked to his master that in 
proposing the first condition of the alternative, that is 
to say, the delay of the marriage of Wilhelmina, Eng- 
land wished to see "if, in the concourse of general 
affairs, they would have need of him, or, in the event 
of his becoming useless, they would beg to be excused." 
The king was always ready to accept insinuations of 
this kind. His defiance had no need of being awak- 
ened : it never slept. He must have been in a good 
frame of mind when he received Sir Charles Hotham 
the next day. 

This was a farewell audience. The Envoy Extraor- 
dinary was on the eve of departing, and was to present 



218 FKEDEKICK THE GREAT. 

to the king Guy Dickens, who was the appointed Min- 
ister of England to Berlin. He resolved to terminate 
his mission with a master-stroke. For some time the 
English Minister had known of the secret correspond- 
ence between Grumbkow and Reichenbach, as he had the 
seals broken and the letters read in a postoffice. He had 
already revealed it to the king through allusions, but 
this prince let the matter drop; the minister had even 
passed over to Frederick William copies of these letters, 
of which he never heard again. Grumbkow, of course, 
denied the authenticity of the correspondence; but he 
wrote to Reichenbach that he earnestly hoped that all 
his letters had been burnedj like the ones that he had 
received from his accomplice. Hotham, deciding to 
expose him, asked from England an original letter of 
Grumbkow's, and Guy Dickens brought it with him : 
this Is the one about which we are to speak. The docu- 
ment was conclusive, since it proved the existence of 
anterior correspondence. Hot*ham placed it in his 
pocket "before going to the king. He was received, 
together with Guy Dickens, at noon on the 10th of 
July. After the presentation of the new Minister and 
the delivery of his credentials, they talked of indiffer- 
ent things for a quarter of an hour. Hotham, judging 
the king to be in a good humor, said: "As General 
Grumbkow has denied being the author of the letters 
that I have presented to Your Majesty, I have the 
order from the king, my master, to give into the hands 
of Your Majesty one of the original letters of the Gen- 
eral." He held out the letter; the king took it, cast 
his eyes over it, recognized Grumbkow's handwriting, 



FATHER AND SON. 219 

and angrily said : "Gentlemen, I have liad enough of 
this." He turned his back, threw the letter on the 
floor, and left the room, closing the door behind him 
with great violence. Sir Charles Hotham, astounded, 
picked up the letter, and retired. ''^'^ 

On his immediate return to' his lodging, he wrote to 
the king to say tliat, with the deepest regret, after 
what had passed during the audience, he was reduced to 
making known to His Majesty the necessity of sending 
a courier to London to notify his court of the su^'pris- 
ing circumstance. He begged His Majesty to give the 
necessary orders to deliver the post-horses to the said 
courier and himself. Two hours after, Minister Borcke 
was with Hotham. He expressed his grief at the 
unforeseen incident, begged him to be calm and pa- 
tient, promising to arrange things. Hotham replied 
that, after the insult offered to the king, his master, he 
could no longer receive any communication from His> 
Prussian Majesty. Had he alone been in question, the 
adjustment could be quickly settled, but, as he had 
only acted in conformity to his master's orders, it 
was for His Britannic Majesty to decide what satisfac- 
tion he should claim for the injury received. 

The king repented of the wanton insult that esca23ed 
him. It appears that he naively said: "It was an 
attack of the spleen. I was in a bad humor, and when 
it takes hold of me, nature must find some relief." 
He probably added: "If this had been a letter from 
the King of England, they might naturally have be- 
come angry; but only a letter from a rascal like 
Grumbkow, what could be said ? Am I not the mas- 



220 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

ter, to do what I will ? The English are very quick to 
anger. "^^*^ 

"To be the master," and, "to do what I will," 
means: I know better than you that Grumbkow is a 
knave; the original letter would have taught me nothing 
if I had read it; but I have a right to have ministers 
that please me. And, suppose it is agreeable to me to 
be deceived? — He is sure that Sir Charles Hotham 
made a departure from diplomatic conventionality, in 
attacking, as he had done, a minister of the Crown of 
Prussia, but the question referred to a family affair — 
to this marriage, that treason thwarted. Sir Charles 
believed that he could unmask the traitor. At any 
rate, the king, if he was trying to show the incongruity 
of the step, certainly took a very strange way to do so. 
He felt it acutely: he had realized it as soon as he had 
closed the door: it was for this reason that he imme- 
diately sent Borcke to the English diplomat. When 
his Minister returned, without having obtained any 
concession, he commanded him to make another effort; 
Borcke expressed again by letter regrets at what had 
happened, and, in behalf of the king, invited Sir 
Charles Hotham to dine next day. Always the same 
answer: impossible to reappear at the court. 

The next day new schemes were laid on all sides to 
detain Sir Charles. It was useless. He departed July 
12th, leaving the Queen, the Crown Prince and Wilhel- 
mina disconsolate. 

On learning of the departure of the chevalier, Fred- 
erick thought that it would not be long ere he saw him 
again in England. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE ATTEMPT AT ESCAPE THE FLIGHT AND ARREST. 

For some time, three or four years, perhaps, Freder- 
ick had been contemplating flight. He dreamed of 
fleeing on horseback or by post, to the noise of whip 
and horses' hoofs; to leave behind him leagues, and Ger- 
man leagues at that, to arrive on the French frontier, to 
sojourn awhile in the country which was the fatherland 
of his 'mind, and then to go and take refuge with his 
English relatives. It was not his betrothed who at- 
tracted him; he did not know her, and was not a love- 
dreamer. If the Princess Amelia came to his thoughts 
sometimes, it was to add a romantic color to his 
schemes, for there was romance, although in a very 
juvenile state, in the prince's projects. But it was for 
liberty that he thirsted, liberty to go and come, to get 
up and go to bed, to read, write, and think, to play the 
flute, — to live, in fact, according to his nature. 

He appears to have had his flrst positive conference 
with Keith, during the winter of 1729; but, the put- 
ting into execution of his designs is reduced to the 
order for a carriage given at Leipsic by a lieutenant 
named Von Spaen. Katte afterward received Freder- 
ick's confidence.'^' 

Katte had qualities calculated to please the prince. 
He loved mathematics, mechanics and music; he knew 



222 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

how to draw and paint; he was a great reader, played 
on the flute, and wrote French well ; he loved to talk 
and discourse. Of his century, of that century in 
which Frederick William was a stranger and a ghost, 
he had free morals, '' sentimentality," a lack of re- 
ligion; and with that he was a little paradoxical. 
A fatalist and an ambitious person, he believed he was 
called to a high destiny. He was the son of a general, 
grandson of a marshal, and friend of the Crown Prince; 
this friendship would open to him the future. He had 
for the prince that sentiment of tender respect, and 
affection at the same time mystic and interested, that 
the heirs to the crown inspire in those that they design 
to be their chosen servitors. He enjoyed the Crown 
Prince's graciousness, the charm of his mind and per- 
son. Frederick's misfortunes moved him; he was also 
touched at the unhappy fate of Wilhelmina; he had 
copied the portrait of the princess, oi whom he would 
have been, if she had permitted it, the very humble 
servitor and knight. To the Crown Prince he could 
refuse nothing, not even the peril of his life. 

In the camp of Miihlberg Frederick addressed the 
first precise requisitions to the friendship of Lieu- 
tenant Katte. During the entire stay there he nego- 
tiated in regard to his flight, in his secret conversations 
with him and Guy Dickens. Katte was, from the first, 
frightened at the project. The prince urged it, and 
wished to leave immediately; he asked Count Hoym, 
Minister of the Elector of Saxony, one day, for some 
post-horses for two young officers who wished to make, 
incognito, a journey to Leipsic. The ruse was artless. 



THE ATTEMPT AT ESCAPE. 223 

for everybody had a presentiment of the Crown 
Prince's schemes. Hoym knew well enough what sig- 
nified this incognito, and refused the relays. Katte 
himself begged him to make it difficult; although he 
acceded to the prince's wishes, since he procured a map 
of the route between Leipsic and Frankfort-on-the- 
Main, at a postoffice. These proceedings did not pass 
unnoticed. Colonel Rochow, the guardian of the 
prince, the daily witness of his sufferings and anger, 
had his suspicions, that he made known to the lieuten- 
ant, who denied all bad intentions. Frederick decided 
to delay the execution of his plans, but to hold himself 
in readiness. ' 

He forthwith announced, in a private interview with 
Guy Dickens in his tent, that he would escape during 
a trip his father intended to make soon to Anspach, 
and through Western Germany; he would go to France, 
pass six or eight weeks in Paris, and from there go on 
to England. He did not admit that he was going 
to Paris, for the pleasure of going to see the city, 
and meet Gresset or Voltaire: "I prefer to go into 
France first," said he to Guy Dickens, "and remain 
there awhile. If I should go immediately to London, 
the king would think that my mother knew of my plan, 
and treat her cruelly." He added, with all the confi- 
dence of a young conspirator, " that everything was in 
readiness," and prayed the Court of London to do what 
was necessary in France, "that he might find there aid 
and protection."^'- Katte, who was aware of this inter- 
course, offered to go to Anspach, there to await him at 
the gates of the city with horses, or to dress himself as 



V 



224 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

a postillion, and serve the prince in that way (which was 
pure folly), until the propitious hour arrived. 

However, the camp of Saxony had broken up. The 
Court returned to Berlin, and awaited the coming of 
Guy Dickens, who had left, as we remember, for Eng- 
land, and who had brought back on the 9th of July, at 
the same time with the new propositions of his court 
on the subject of the marriages, an answer to the confi- 
dences of Frederick. 

His Britannic Majesty gave to His Highness the 
strongest assurances of his compassion and sincere de- 
sire to rescue him from this state, but he believed that 
tlae situation of the affairs of Europe, in this critical 
moment, were not in a suitable condition for the execu- 
tion of His Highness' design. He advised him to de- 
fer it a little while, to await at least the results of the 
new negotiations in which Sir Charles Hotham was then 
engaged. Besides, the time had passed when they could 
gain information as to the welcome reserved for the 
prince " if he retired to that country. . . ." This 
answer was written in a kind of ofticial instruction; it 
was evident the Court of England treated Frederick as 
a sovereign ; her Envoy was given as much authority to 
negotiate with the son as with the father. Guy Dick- 
ens was also commissioned to offer a bribe to the prince. 
It was proposed to pay his debts, but on condition that 
he would give the promise not to attempt flight. 

The same evening of his arrival in Berlin Guy Dick- 
ens received the visit of Katte, who led him under the 
portals of the palace, where the prince came to join 
them. The Envoy fulfilled his mission: Frederick ac- 



THE ATTEMPT AT ESCAPE. 225 

cepted the offer to pay his debts, and even, as he had a 
remarkable presence of mind, asked for 15,000 thalers, 
although he owed but 7,000, and did not commit him- 
self into promising that he would renounce his project; 
he only gave his word not to fly from Potsdam if his 
father left him there. 

During this night interview Katte kept w^atch. All 
this was very romantic, but of a childlike imprudence. 

Two or three days after, the king departed for Pots- 
dam. The prince learned that, after much hesitation, 
his father had decided to take him w^ith him on the 
journey. The 14th of July, the day before the depart- 
ure, he wrote to Katte at Potsdam. Katte went to him 
in the evening, without permission, of course, and it 
was necessary to beg the officer who was on guard at 
the gate not to signal his passing through. He found 
the prince in the park. 

They talked for two hours. Frederick repeated all 
his reasons for flight; he had just been maltreated 
there, and so rudely that he ended with fearing for his 
life. Katte demurred somewhat, but promised to fol- 
low him. Only, he could not leave immediately; he 
had to aw^ait the permission that he had solicited to 
go recruiting. He advised the prince to put off his 
flight until the end of the journey: the king had to 
enter his Estates through Wesel ; from there it would 
be easy to reach Holland. The two accomplices thus 
establislied their project upon an hypothesis, since it 
was uncertain that Katte could obtain the recpiesled 
leave of absence. They had arranged nothing definite- 
ly when they separated at midnight. They liad agreed 



226 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

to correspond,— this was a new imprudence, — through 
the medium of one of Katte's cousins, Rittmeister Katte, 
who was on a tour of recruiting at Erlangen, within 
easy distance of Anspach. 

The next day, 15th of July, the prince, before setting 
out, wrote to Katte, to confirm his resolution of flying 
at the beginning of the journey. He arranged to meet 
him at Cannstatt, without even knowing if the lieuten- 
ant could be there at the same time as he. The page 
who took charge of this letter also gaA^e Katte some 
things that the prince did not wish to leave behind 
him, among which was the musicalia. Katte had al- 
ready in his possession Frederick's jewels and the in- 
signia of the Order of the White Eagle of Poland, the 
diamonds of which had been sold and replaced by 
>falsQ stones. The prince had confided to him the money 
"for the journey, amounting to about 3,000 thalers. 

On the morning of this 15th of July the king took 
leave of the queen very tenderly. He expressed his regret 
at the " foolish way " he had acted toward Sir Charles 
Hotham, and his desire for the .double marriage, with 
this ugly restriction: "But my son shows too much 
anxiety to get married ; while he does that, I will make 
him wait. I mean that he shall have no other will but 
mine." He even acknowledged that he had been "the 
dupe" of Seckendorff. "You are commencing to talk 
more reasonably," said the queen; "but just as soon as 
you see the bell-tower on Count Seckendorff's estate, 
where you are going first, you will think difl:erently, 
and on your return from your journey you will become 
more enraged than ever at your family and at me, and 



THE ATTEMPT AT ESCAPE. 227 

make us suffer, as usual." The king replied: "No, I 
promise you ! I love you too much, my dear Avife. Em- 
brace me."^'^ Neither one nor the other had any idea 
what that return would be. Nevertheless, the prince's 
projects were suspected. It was said that he was going 
to take this opportunity "to shake the dust from his 
feet." The king gave the order that Colonel Rochow, 
General Buddenbrock and Colonel Waldo w should not 
leave the carriage of his son. He, no doubt, took him 
on this journey so as to watch him more closely. 

The first night was passed at Meuselwitz, Count 
Seckendorff's estate, where the king remained the two 
following days. The 18th he continued his route, tak- 
ing the Count with him. The 21st he arrived at his 
son-in-law's, the Margrave of Anspach, where he so- 
journed about a week, "to regulate the economy", of 
the young household. The 23d, at midnight, a letter 
from Katte was brought to the prince by the cousin, 
the Itittmeiste7'. Bad news:-they had refused the lieu- 
tenant 2^ermission to travel. The prince burned the 
letter, and his response was for Katte to remain quiet 
until he received fresh orders. Now he wished to 
assure himself of another accomplice, and put the propo- 
sition to the Hittmeister, but he refused, and went so far 
as to warn Rochow, (but without revealing anything to 
him) not to lose sight of his " High Subordinate" for an 
instant. To whom could he apply? Among the king's 
pages was a younger brother of Keith's, the friend 
who was at Wesel. The })rince confided in him, slipped 
notes into his hand, and carried on tlie foHowing in- 
tercourse secretly: "Can horses be found anywhere?" — 



228 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

" 111 some places they are to be found ; in others not." — 
"Are you obliged to always stay near the king's car- 
riage? Can you manage to be half a league behind or 
in front?" — "I must always remain near at hand, for 
the king, when he descends, asks after all those that 
belong to his retinue." — "Order horses for me." — 
"Where does His Highness wish to go ? " — "Where do 
you think 1 will go? " — " I do not know." — " If I once 
go away I will never return." 

Believing himself to be sure of a companion, Freder- 
ick wrote to Katte, the 29th of July, that he was mis- 
treated for having dropped his knife. He commanded 
him to go to tiie Hague and look for a Count Alberville, 
the fictitious name under which he wished to hide 
his identity. In this letter another was enclosed, which 
Katte must leave so that it could be read. The prince 
therein deduced his reasons for his flight; he was too 
badly treated, and could support this existence no 
longer; the sojourn at Wusterhausen, said he, will be 
still worse than the preceding years. It was at this 
house of ennui, sermons and terror that the prince had 
been disgusted with life. He swore that he would 
never go there again. At the same moment he wrote 
to Keith to leave Wesel and go to Holland. 

From Anspach the king took the route to Wurtem- 
berg. The Ducal Court awaited him at Ludwigsburg. 
On arriving Frederick prepared for flight, as if for a 
love venture, enveloping himself in a red mantle, which 
he had had made some days before; he had ordered Keith 
to buy a blue one. On the morning of the fourth of 
August, as he was leaving Ludwigsburg, he put on his 



THE ATTEMPT AT ESCAPE. 229 

fine, new mantle; "this," said Rocbow to him, "is a 
garment that will not please the king." He replied 
that he wore the mantle on account of the cold (which 
did not explain the color), and then he took it off. The 
hour appointed by him was close at hand. This same 
day, at Heilbronn, the cortege of carriages left the val- 
ley of the Xeckar and took the direction of Mannheim, 
where the Elector Palatine awaited the King of Prussia. 
The prince, who had maps, and informed himself, as if 
through curiosity, of the halting-places, thought that 
they would stay over night at Sinsheim, and from there 
he resolved to fly. But, by chance, the king wished to 
stop at Steinsfurth, where it was agreed to pass the 
night in some barns: the prince was lodged opposite the 
king. "We are not so far from Mannheim," said the 
king, on retiring. "On leaving here at five o'clock in 
the morning, we will have ample time to reach it." 
The prince, who had given his orders to Keith, thought 
that it would be a long time until that hour. 

At half-past two o'clock he dressed himself. His 
valet de chambre, Gummersbach, Rochow's man of con- 
fidence, was astonished. "I wish only to get up," said 
the prince. "What's that to you?" He 2)ut on his 
red mantle. Gummersbach made some observations : 
"I wish to put it on," replied the prince, who added, 
"that he was going to the king," and went out, not- 
withstanding that the valet said: "the king is not to 
be awakened until the departure at five o'clock." lie 
stationed himself before the barn; however, Gummers- 
bach sent a chasseur to call the colonel. Rochow, who 
retired dressed, came instantly; he found the jM-ince 



230 FKEDERICK THE GREAT. 

waiting near his carriage: " Good morning, Your High- 
ness," said he. The prince returned his greeting, left 
the carriage, and re-entered the barn. Rochow walked 
up and down before the door with Gummersbach. At 
three o'clock Keith, who was late, arrived with horses. 
"You see," said Gummersbach to the colonel, "what 
it means by these horses being here. I Avill guard the 
prince." Rochow went toward Keith, wished him good 
morning, and asked him what he intended to do with 
the horses. "They are the pages' horses," said Keith. 
"Go to the devil with your horses," cried the colonel. 
Buddenbrock and Waldow, also notified, came out to 
join Rochow. Seckendorff, who always slept with one 
eye open, appeared in the street. The prince had 
started out again, and the dawning day lighted up his 
red mantle: " Excellency," said Rochow to the Austrian, 
"how do you like the prince's attire?" The prince 
took off his mantle, and, in despair, went to his father's 
resting-place. The king had not yet risen. "Your 
carriage," said the king, "is heavier than mine. You 
go on before; otherwise you will arrive late." The 
prince left the room while his father was dressing, and 
went to drink his tea, lingering as long as he could, 
doing it so well that the king, who thought him already 
en route, left him behind. When he arrived at 
Heidelberg he was astonished not to find the prince 
there. "Where is my son? He must have gone very 
fast. They could not, however, have been foolish 
enough to enter Mannheim before my arrival." At eight 
o'clock the king was at Mannheim; still no prince. The 
king became uneasy; he imagined that Frederick had 



THE ATTEMPT AT ESCAPE. 231 

succeeded in escaping. To calm him, the Elector Pala- 
tine sent his equerry along the route to Heidelberg. At 
last the tardy prince and his attendants arrived at half- 
past ten.^'^ 

It was evident that Frederick could not escape, but 
the resolution that he had taken to risk all rather than 
abandon this beautiful dream, made him blind. Again 
he gave the command to Keith to order horses, btit the 
page had had a good scare that morning, in receiving 
the ironical salute of Rochow. He knew the king, and 
felt his head totter on his shoulders. The 6th of 
August, which was Sunday, after divine service, Keith 
threw himself at his master's feet and acknowledged 
the whole plot. 

The king controlled the tempest rising, within him, 
and resolved to dissimulate until he arrived in his city' 
of Wesel, but he galled Rochow near a window, and 
said: "Fritz wishes to desert; I am astonished that 
nothing of it has been told me. You, Rochow, will 
be responsible with your head, if you do not see that he 
reaches Wesel, dead or alive. I have not the time to say 
any more now. And, as it happens that I cannot find 
means at present to speak alone with Buddenbrock and 
Waldow, you must tell them in my name, and order them 
to be responsible to me." Rochow, who had the gener- 
osity not to disclose the adventure of the day before, was 
contented to answer: "He cannot escape us; he could 
not have escaped us. I have taken ])recautious. The 
prince has a faithful valet, in whom we may trust," 
Upon which they seated themselves at table. The king, 
who knew so little how to restrain himself, and who 



232 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

loved to give vent to his anger, must have endured the 
torments of hell. The sight of the French intendant, the 
commander and officers of Landau, who came to Mann- 
heim, disturbed him. He thought that they had come 
in advance of the prince to form his escort. That even- 
ing, at Darmstadt, where they remained over night, he 
could not keep from saying to his son: "I am sur- 
prised to see you here. I thought you were already in 
Paris." Frederick responded boldly by a lie: "If I 
had wished it, I could have certainly been in France." 
O^ice more, ignorant that he had been betrayed, he 
passed a note to Keith: " The plot has taken an unfav- 
orable turn. Arrange for our leaving." 

.They arrived at Frankfort on the 8th of August, in 
\the morning, whence they were to descend the Main. 
The king visited all the places of interest in two 
hours, without the companionship of. the prince; he had 
him conducted directly to the boat which was going 
to transport the Royal party to Bonn. Frederick Will- 
iam burned with impatience to return home, but he 
had promised a visit to the Elector of Cologne, who 
was expecting him. He reached Bonn on the 10th. 
Before putting up there he ordered the officers of the 
prince to watch him well, and bring him back to the 
boat, dead or alive. Frederick heard these commands 
and other hard words spoken by his father without a 
frown. But, in his heart, he began to be troubled, 
feeling himself already a prisoner. In his way, he was 
shrewd. He guessed that all was discovered, and that 
Seckendorff was posted. He determined then to draw 
this enemy over to his cause, making him think he was 



THE ATTEMPT AT ESCAPE. 233 

worthy of bis confidence, and interesting the generosity 
of a man who was so powerful, near his father: "I 
had," said Frederick to SeckendorJff, "the firm intention 
of running away. A prince eighteen years old can no 
longer bear being treated in this way by the king, 
and beaten as I have been in the Saxony camp. In 
spite of all surveillance (he repeated and completed 
his lie), I could have fled, had I not been restrained by 
my love for the queen and my sister. I do not renounce 
my resolution. If the king does not cease to strike 
me, I will put it into execution, no matter at what cost* 
The peril of my life does not disturb me. Only I shouLi 
regret that some officers, having knowledge of the: 
thing, would be exposed to danger, when they have not. 
committed a fault, but have simply allowed themselves, 
to be inveigled into it by me. If the king promise?" 
pardon for them, I will admit all frankly. If not, they 
can cut off my head before I betray anybody." Then, 
pushing his confidence a little further, he added that 
the queen knew nothing of his projects, but he was 
troubled about Katte; he hoped, though, that he would 
save himself after having destroyed their secret cor- 
respondence. He terminated his discourse by request- 
ing Seckendorff to have a talk with the king; "You 
cannot show me greater friendship; I will be grateful 
to you all my life for drawing me out. of this di- 
lemma."^" 

Seckendorff had to listen with an air of respectful 
compassion, at the same time hiding his pleasure at 
the sight of so proud a youth reduced to asking a favor 
of him, knowing how reluctantly lie gave this forced 



234 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

confidence. The next day, at Mors, he spoke to the 
king in generous terms of the prince's repentance. The 
king replied that he would prefer pardon to justice, if 
his son would make his avowals in an open-hearted man- 
ner, a thing he very much doubted ; but, at Geldern, 
he learned that Lieutenant Keith had left Wesel. For 
several days he was aware that Katte had sent a mes- 
sage to Frederick during the journey. He saw the cor- 
relation of the two facts in the attempt ^t flight. In 
haste to put the prince in a place of safe keeping, he 
sent him on before to Wesel. 

The king himself arrived there at half -past eight in 
the evening. He immediately ordered the prince to 
come to the Commandatur, and subjected him to a 
series of questions. The prince avowed that he wished 
to go into France, and added the story that he had 
given a rendezvous at Strasburg to Katte and Keith. 
It is said that the king, displeased with his answers, 
became so furious that General Von de Mosel threw 
himself between father and son, offering his chest to 
the first one of them that would draw his sword. But 
Frederick William, I think, was depressed and over- 
whelmed, as well as irritated. It is not impossible that 
he thought at the moment that these acts of violence to- 
ward his son would be counted against him in this 
trial in which he engaged before the eyes of all Eu- 
rope. The official act of questioning, on the 12th of 
August, said that the prince was summoned "in the 
most solemn way, to honor as he should God and his 
seignior and father, and to confess, according to his duty 
and conscience, all the circumstances of his projected 



THE ATTEMPT AT ESCAPE. 235 

desertion." Before delivering liis son over to justice, 
Frederick William bad to speak in this judge-like man- 
ner, and abide by it. The prince then assumed the 
position to which he was going to adhere, mixing false- 
hood and truth with extraordinary coolness; he was 
proud, and insolent even, but always cunning, and 
never pushing anything to extreme. It is quite proba- 
ble that he may have answered his father by reproach- 
ing him for his acts of violence and his irritating 
speeches, saying ' ' that he should blame only himself 
for what had happened. "^'^ 

Afterward Frederick was taken to a room apart, and 
guarded by sentinels with fixed bayonets. The next 
day he was examined by Colonel Derschau, upon the 
questions prepared by the king. He answered by a 
story. "He wished," he said, "to go incognito to Lan- 
dau, Strasburg and Paris, to take service, enter Italy, 
distinguish himself by brilliant action, and obtain in 
this way His Majesty's pardon;" but, at the same time, 
the king, who sent an order to follow Keith, learned 
that he had gone, not to Strasburg, but to the Hague. 
The prince was declared guilty of falsehood. The king 
had him notified of this through Derschau, and 
became more and more troubled ; he went even so far 
as to think that there was a conspiracy against his life. 
The prince was either informed of or guessed these ter- 
rible suspicions. 

"My dear father," wrote he, "I take the liberty 
of writing to my dear father, to ask him to recall 
my arrest, giving assurance that all that I have 
said or have had told to my dear father is true. As to 



236 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

the suspicions held against me, time will show that 
they are groundless, and I affirm that I have not had the 
bad intention that they accuse me of having. I implore 
my dear father's pardon, and I remain, for life, his most 
respectful, most submissive, and very devoted son. "^" 

For answer, the king gave the prince into the hands 
of General Buddenbrock, with the order to conduct 
him across Germany, to the Fortress of Spandau. 
The escort should evade the territories of Hesse and 
Hanover, suspicious countries, where the prince might 
perhaps find accomplices. In case of surprise or at- 
tempt at abduction, "Buddenbrock must arrange it so 
that the others will receive him dead." 

The prince was taken away from Wesel in great 
secrecy. Until they reached Halle they were on the 
march day and night, never halting except in the open 
countiy, in a place "where -they could see all around 
them, and where there were no bushes and hedges;" 
they ate in the carriage. The king, the same day, set 
forth again. A proof (it seems to me, at least) of his 
hesitation, of his disturbed mind, of his anguish, a re- 
coil before the fact to which he gave, in petto^ mon- 
strous proportions, — is that he did not go directly to 
Berlin. He traveled a week, and did not arrive until 
the 26th of August at the Royal Palace. 

THE EXAMINATION. 

Terror reigned in Berlin when they heard the news 
from Wesel. The king, the same day of the arrest, 
wrote a letter to the queen, and another to Madame de 
Kamken : " 



THE ATTEMPT AT ESCAPE. . 237 

"My dear Madame de Kamken,'''^ I have the miBfortune 
to state {leider das Unglilck ) that my son has desired to desert 
with the page, Keith. I have had him arrested. I have writ- 
ten to my wife. She may grieve for a few days. It is for you 
to see that she does not fall sick. 

" I am your devoted friend, 

" Fr. William." ^ 

The letter to the queen was lost; the one that Wilhel- 
mina put in her 3Iemoirs is certainly false. Frederick 
William, at the moment he took precautions to lighten 
the blow that he gave hivS wife, would not have writ- 
ten to her if he had resolved upon the death of his 
son. It is likely, as the Ministers of England and 
France said, that, after having related Xhe facts and 
the examination of the prince, and the manner in which 
he conducted himself, he announced to the queen the 
arrest and the order he had given to take Fritz to a for- 
tress. ^^^ We have not the right to think that no human 
sentiment was mingled with the king's anger. There 
was in the note to Madame de Kamken a strange demon- 
stration of sentiment, but yet it was sentiment. 

Again, the king sent an . order from Wesel. It Avas 
to arrest Katte. He had remained quietly in Berlin, 
thinking that the prince had renounced his project, 
since he, the indispensable companion, could not join 
him. He went to pass the day of the 18th of August 
in the country, through permission of Field-marshal 
Natzmer, chief of the regiment of Gensd'armes. He was 
arrested the following morning. ^^° 

The queen and Wilhelmina passed terrible days await- 
ing the return. Uneasy as to the fate of the prince, 
the remembrance, too, of their intrigues, must have 



238 . FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

made tl^em tremble for themselves J^^ The scene of the 
arrival was overpowering : ' ' We both ran to kiss 
his hand," said Wilhelmina, "bat scarcely did he 
see us than anger and rage took possession of him. 
He became black in the face, his eyes flashed with 
fury, and he foamed at the mouth. 'Infamous wretch,' 
said he to me, 'dost thou dare to come before me? 
Go and keep company with thy rascally brother.'" 

'And he struck her so' hard that the princess fell to the 
floor; he wished to trample her under foot; the queen, 
her brothers and sisters, .and the ladies of the court 
surrounded- him. He then let her alone; but, while 
the queen wrung her hands and ' ran wildly about, 

: and the brothers .and sisters, the youngest being only four 
y^ars old, cried on their knees, he hurled invectives at 

^his daughter. ^^^ At that moment Katte crossed the 
courtyard, between four soldiers. As he raised his 
head he perceived Wilhelmina, whom they had seated in 
a chair in the embrasure, of the window: he saluted her. 
The ki>ig did not have the hope of catching Katte; 
when he gave the order for his arrest, he believed 
he had fled, like Keith, whom, in order to get back 
again, he did almost the impossible. He sent a colonel 
in pursuit, who discovered Keith at the Hague. He 
directed Meinertshagen, his Minister in that city, to 
obtain permission to arrest the deserter. The Grand 
Pensionary of Holland refused at first, then, when the 
Minister laid the affair before him, authorized the ar- 
rest, provided it was not made in the quarters of Lord 
Chesterfield, the Ambassador of England. It was there 
that Keith had taken refuge: Meinertshagen found only 



THE ATTEMPT AT ESCAPE. 230 

his spurs at the hotel X^rei SchneUen. The 18th of 
August, Keith embarked right under the eyes of the 
Minister at Scheveningen, where he had been conducted 
in a carriage of the Embassy. At London even, the 
king wished to have him arrested, and he gave the 
order to Degenfeld, promising him a good recompense, 
eine gute Recompense if he would do all iii his power 
to discover him, ajid he sent the description of the 
fugitive: "medium height, straight^, thin, brown, a little 
pallid, and squint-eyed." But Keith remained out of 
Frederick William's reach. ^^^ Katte was, then, the only 
witness, the only known accomplice : the king let^ali 
his anger fall on him. He himself subjected him, the 
27th of August, to the first examination. Four othets 
followed, up to the 9th of September. 

Katte, who did not show the least emotion the day. of 
his arrest, kei)t his composure. He confessed the pro- 
ject formed in the Saxony camp, the conversations with 
the prince, and the negotiations with Guy Dickens, and 
the interviews before the departure on the journey. He 
added, in his defense, the advice he had given the 
prince to renounce the scheme; he made the remark 
that, as he had the money in his hands. His Higlmess 
could not fly, insinuating that he would have retained 
him at the last moment. These avowals did not suffice 
Frederick William, who sought proofs of more crimi- 
nal intentions. He wished to put Katte to the torture, 
but relinquished this idea upon the lively opposition of 
Grumbkow to this barbarity. Finally, on the 20t]i of Sep- 
teml>er, in a last examination, to the question: -'•Does 
he acknowledge, then, that if he had been able, he 



240 FKEDERICK THE GREAT. 

would have escaped?" Katte answered; "If the 
prince had gone I would have followed him, but I al- 
ways thought he would never go." No doubt, he 
spoke the truth. It is probable that he learned with 
pleasure that permission to travel had been refused 
him. He believed that the prince would return, and 
that they would take up again their life of secret friend- 
ship and confidence, which would aid them to await the 
accession. But he had admitted that he would have 
followed the prince, had it been necessary. The same 
day, his valet made a deposition to the fact that about 
two days before the arrest, at his master's order, he had 
covered with paper the silver galloon of a gray coat 
made for the prince. 

Upon this avowal and this declaration, the examina- 
tion concluded, concerning Katte, that, up to the last 
jmoment, he would have deserted. 

» The examination, at the same time, continued against 
th-e principal accused. The king had decided that his 
son should be conducted, not to Spandau, but to Ciis- 
triru He ordered that he be examined before arriving 
at this fortress, at Mittenwalde, by a committee com- 
posed of Generals Grumbkow and Glasenapp, Colonel 
von Sydow, and the auditors Mylius and Gerbett. To 
believe the report then circulated, he was very inso- 
lent. He refused to give up his sword himself to 
Grumbkow, saying he could go and take it from the 
table in the adjoining room. He amused himself by 
giving his deposition with such rapidity that Grumb- 
kow's pen could not follow him. To the question : 
"Why did you wish to run away?" he answered: " You 



THE ATTEMPT AT ESCAPE. 241 

ought to know better than any one, and be more capa- 
ble of givdng the reasons to your master." To an ob- 
jection that Grumbkow raised to one of his answers, he 
said: "You are here only to write, so write. "'^* This is 
all mere invention, for Grumbkow did not conduct the 
examination, but it is certain that the prince appeared 
very gay and inclined to joke, — lustig unci frolich, and 
that he desired to have the air of directing the debates. 
He had it written in the minutes that he had said ev- 
erything without reticence and without awaiting the 
questions. In fact, he had asked several times of the 
committee: "Is that all? Do you wish to know still 
more?" He did not condescend to implore either par- 
don or clemency for himself, but he interceded for 
Katte, saying that the unfortunate man had been in- 
duced to do it through him. 

Two days after this the prince was registered at Ciis- 
trin. General von Lepell, Governor of the place, had 
received orders from the king; "Guard him well, for 
he is very tricky, and will invent a hundred ways to 
escape." This was a prison in reality, with all its 
horrors. Kept in secrecy and in absolute solitude, the 
prince became very weary. He tried one of his "hun- 
dred inventions," and asked permission to commune. 
He really did not have the slightest desire to do so, and 
only wished some distraction, and at the same time to 
flatter his father. The king responded : "It is not yet 
time; the court-martial must be concluded, first of all ; 
after that it will be time." These words had, perhaps, 
a terrible hidden meaning. The king then added that 
the prisoner should have neither pen nor ink ; the 



242 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

prince should never leave his room : a lackey should 
take him his dinner and supper; the dinner should cost 
but six groschens, and the supper but four. His flute 
should be taken away from him, and it was forbidden 
to procure him another. ^^^ 

N'ow the committee prepared a second examination, 
and General Mylius, the principal auditor, arranged a 
list of questions. To this procedure of the jurists the 
king supplemented, in his fashion, live questions not 
within the bounds of the law. Mylius hesitated to in- 
troduce them; he wished to be exonerated from all 
ulterior responsibility by an order from the king. "I 
have dictated these articles myself to my secretary," 
wrote the king. "I command you to execute my in- 
structions on my responsibility." The chief examination 
took place on the 16th of September. The prince had 
finished with the one hundred and seventy-eight first 
questions which bore upon the subject of his projected 
flight, upon the negotiations relatiA^e to the marriage, 
and upon the events of the last few years. Then came 
the king's questions. 

Q. What does he deserve, and what punishment does 
he expect? A. I submit myself to the mercy and will 
of the king. 

Q. What does a man deserve when he has broken 
his faith and plotted desertion ? ^. I do not think I 
have failed in honor. 

Q. Does he deserve to become a king ? A. I can- 
not be my own judge. 

;§. Does he wish his life to be spared or not ? A. 
I submit myself to the mercy and will of the king. 



THE ATTEMPT AT ESCAPE. 243 

Q. As he has rendered himself unfit to succeed to 
the throne by breaking his faith, will he, to preserve 
his life, abdicate his succession and renounce it in such 
manner that it will be confirmed throughout the whole 
Roman Empire? A. I do not cling much to life, but 
His Royal Majesty will not use such rigorous means 
against me. 

Formidable questions these, which show the state of 
mind and the intentions of the supreme judge, the king. 
And wonderful answers,— after the fatigue of the other 
examination — from an accused of eighteen years, to be 
admired for the precision of the words, which say ex- 
actly what is meant to be expressed, and in that digni- 
fied, and even proud manner that knows no compromise. 
The prince had cleverly glided into the first part of the 
examination, expressions of regret, and a plea of the 
extenuating circumstance of his youth. At the end, 
troubled, perhaps, by the subsequent questions, and not 
wishing to leave the impression upon the committee that 
'^I do not cling to life," he made a declaration which he 
asked to be inserted in the formulary. " He acknowl- 
edged that, all in all, upon every point, he had been 
in the wrong ; that which gave him the most sorrow 
was the trouble he gave His Majesty; that he submit- 
ted in everything to the mercy and will of the king: 
that His Majesty could do with him what seemed best 
to him; that he asked pardon." 

In receiving the protocol the king tore off the addi- 
tion to it, where pardon was asked. He made the 
prison life harder, so as to avenge himself upon his 
son's coolness and cleverness.' He sent to the Governor 



244 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

General an instruction "in regard to the way the pris- 
oner, Prince Frederick, should be guarded so that he 
could not escape from the prison," notifying the said 
General, even in the title of the document, that his 
head would be responsible for the execution of these 
orders: "The door (of the room) where Prince Freder- 
ick is held a prisoner must be well-closed day and 
night, with two heavy locks across it; the keys must be 
in the keeping of H^eneral Lepell. Every morning at 
eight o'clock it must be opened, and two officers shall 
enter to see if everything is right; a stoker of the post 
shall briiig to the arrested, der)i Arrestanten^ a glass 
and a basin of water to make himself clean, and take 
the soiled things from the room ; the whole must not 
take more than a few minutes;- then the officers are to 
go out and close the door firmly. At noon they shall 
bring him som^ething to eat, and, immediately after, 
close the door. In the evening at six o'clock they shall 
023en the door again, and take him something to eat. 
The soiled plates and dishes (of the dinner) shall then 
be removed, and, immediately after, close all again se- 
curely. In the morning, when bringing the water, the 
soiled plates and dishes of the evening before shall be 
taken away. Thus, three times a day the door shall be 
opened, and every time, it shall not remain open longer 
than four minutes, and two captains shall be present at 
the opening and closing. As regards the sentinels, have 
as many as are necessary, for you will be held responsi- 
ble. The captains who open and close the doors must 
not, under penalty of great disgrace, speak to the pris- 
oner. If he asks them anything, "What is taking 



THE ATTEMPT AT ESCAPE. 245 

place here or there, or if there is any news," they arc 
not to answer a word ; this is my strict order, and they 
must conform to it as their heads will be responsible."!^*^ 

The jailors (the king had added a colonel to General 
Lepell) reflected upon the king's orders, and found that 
he had not foreseen everything: "The very gracious 
order of Your Majesty has arrived, but, in virtue of the 
said order, as no one can remain more than four minutes 
near the royal prisoner, and cannot be present while he 
eats, we ask, in all submission: 1st, Must we leave him 
a knife and fork, and for how long a time; 2d, How 
many wax candles a day must be given him?" The 
king answered: "Neither knife nor fork. Have his 
victuals cut up beforehand." He^ forgot to speak of the 
wax candles, but, some days later, receiving the ac- 
counts of "His Royal Highness' subsistence," w^hich 
amounted for four weeks, — comprising the washing, 
lodging and feeding of the lackey, in the town, and the 
locks put on the door — thirty-two thalers, three gros- 
chens and three pfennigs, he approved and settled these 
accounts, but ordered for the future that the wax light 
should be replaced by tallow candles. '^^ 

This redoubled vigilance gave the prince some un- 
easiness. "It seems to me," said he one day to the two 
captains of service, "that I am, more severely guarded 
than ever." He wished to see faces, to talk and hear 
others talk. The little scheme about the communion 
not having succeeded, he asked to be heard again by 
the committee. The king, after having hesitated some 
days, sent them to Ciistrin, but he instructed Grumb- 
kow to say very disagreeable things to the i)rince: "If 



246 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

this knave asks news of me, my wife and my children, 
say that no one thinks of him any longer, that my wife 
never wishes to hear of him again, that Wilhelmina 
is shut up in Berlin, and will soon be sent to the 
country. ..." 

The examining magistrates soon saw that the priuce 
had nothing to say to them. As he begun by recall- 
ing that, according to the first examination, the 
choice had been given him between renunciation of the 
crown and death or imprisonment for life, they re- 
marked to him that, of imprisonment for life there had 
been no mention. " Then," he replied, "all my reflec- 
tions are useless. A long imprisonment was appearing 
to me intolerable. If I must lose my life, I beg they 
will give me to understand it in suitable time. As to 
renunciation, if I thought to recover through that 
means the good graces of the king, I would submit to 
his will. I can also assure you that the king may do with 
me what he will, and as he will; I will love him none 
the less. Respect and love for him will always remain 
in my heart." Evidently, he wished to be reassured. 
The committee gave him probably good report, for he 
-saw himself suddenly out of danger, and confided to 
them two wishes that he had : "I take the liberty to 
beg His Majesty to allow me to put on my uniform 
again, and permit me to read good and useful books." 
Then Grumbkow, after having given this message to 
the king, must say: "If the queen has also turned her 
grace from me, I pray the king to influence my mother 
to give me back again her grace and love." 

The prisoner in this way gave himself the pleasure 



THE ATTEMPT AT ESCAPE. 247 

of a conversation; on the same occasion he found means 
to flatter his father in his most sensitive point, in ask- 
ing again for that uniform that, but a short while since, 
he called "my shroud." He hoped to touch him 
through the promise of a submission, which would go 
even so far as to renounce the throne. He knew, too, 
that the king reproached him for loving only the 
queen; to implore his father to reconcile his mother and 
himself was a very clever "invention." 

The king's reply was: "I do not wish so bad an 
officer in my army, much less in my regiment." 

What was Frederick William's inward feeling? He 
was a prey to sinister thoughts, and committed atro- 
cious acts. The examination revealed a little love in- 
trigue that Frederick had with Elizabeth Hitter, 
daughter of a Cantor of Potsdam. One evening, 
while strolling through the streets with Lieutenant 
Ingersleben, the prince attracted this young girl from 
the house. He had visited her several times, during 
the absence of her father. They had played duets to- 
gether upon the harpsichord and flute; he had given 
her some ducats and a blue dress. The king, as soon 
as he learned this story, sent a midwife and a surgeon 
to Elizabeth. They found her innocent. Nevertheless, 
he gave the two following orders: " His Royal Majesty 
commands Klinte, Judge of the Court, to whip to-mor- 
row the daughter of the Cantor^ who is here under ar- 
rest, and to transport her immediately to the hemp fac- 
tory of the prison of Spandau. She must be w^hipped 
before the city hall, after that, before her father's house, 
then at all the corners of the city." "To the Gov- 



248 ^ FREDEKICK THE GREAT. 

ernor of Spandau. His Majesty orders, through the 
present letter, that the Governor of Spandau shall re- 
ceive for life into the hemp factory of the prison the 
daughter of the Cantor of Potsdam, who is about to be 
sent there." ^^^ The foreign ministers who reported news 
like this to their courts wondered how it could be cred- 
ited. 

Everything - that touched Frederick, closely or re- 
motely, was visited by the king's wrath. One of the 
examinations of Katte revealed the existence of the 
secret library, so dear to the j^rince that he had given 
orders to have it transported, after his flight, to Eng- 
land. The king had the librarian called before him; a 
poor devil of a beadle, whom he questioned for an hour 
and a half, asking, among other things, if there were 
books in this library on atheism, and how much the 
prince paid by the week. When the man said "twenty 
sols," the king had a moment of satisfaction : "At any 
rate, that is not too much," said he. Then the king 
was conducted to the house that contained the fifteen 
closets, opened a few of the volumes, ordered the 
crowned F to be effaced from the covers of the books, 
and for them all to be packed in boxes. They were 
shipped immediately to Hamburg, to the Prussian resi- 
dent there, with the order to sell the books "for as 
good a price as possible," without disclosing whence 
they came. The resident made a catalogue wherein 
he inscribed the books in the disorder that he found 
them, and among them even the catalogue that Fred- 
erick himself had made. Like the books, the masters 
were also dispatched. Duhan was exiled to Memel 
with the beadle librarian. ^^^ 



THE ATTEMPT AT ESCAPE. 249 

At the same time the priiic*e's servants were dismissed; 
his carriages and horses were sold. The regiment of 
which he was colonel for three years was given to his 
brother William. It might have been said that the 
succession to the title of Crown Prince w^as open. 

All those who approached the king really feared that 
it might be so. Ginckel, the Minister from Holland, 
who was in great favor with the king, observed him 
during this crisis. One day, in the beginning of Sep- 
tember, he was at the parade near the king, whom he 
saw for the first time since the event. The king 
spoke, at first, of indifferent things, then there sud- 
denly came a furious light in his eyes: " You know 
what is going on," and, in a torrent of oaths and 
curses, he named the accomplices of the prince, France, 
England, Sir Charles Hotham and Guy Dickens. He 
invited Ginckel to return that evening, so that he could 
tell him more. The things that the Hollander heard 
that night at the tahagie he dared not repeat. He could 
not believe it possible that a human mind could form 
designs as impious and execrable as those that were con- 
fided to him: "If the King of Prussia persists in these 
sentiments (it is to be hoped that God will not permit 
it), we will see the most dreadful, bloody scenes that 
have ever happened since the creation of the world." 
That night Ginckel could not sleep, haunted by the 
vision of the king uttering the most awful threats 
to his family with a wild look and foaming at the 
mouth. '''^ Frederick William thought at that time that 
there was a great plot organized against him to take 
his son away, and that even Frederick wished to kill or 
poison him. 



250 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

His anger increased more and more during the whole 
month of September. He passed horrible nights, tor- 
mented by aj^paritions. But, in proportion as the ex- 
amination proved the exaggeration of his suspicions, in 
spite of himself, he appeared to become a little calmer; 
however, even this exasperated him. The latter part 
of October, in one of the sittings at his tabagie^ he ac- 
companied the name of his son with the grossest insults. 
Ginckel tried to intercede: "The prince," said he, 
"has merely committed a youthful indiscretion, he is, 
nevertheless, the son and the blood of Your Majesty." 
" As for the blood," replied the king . . . but he 
was so furious that he could not speak. He pointed 
with his finger to his arm, as much as to say, "this 
blood must be drawn out of him." '^^ 

Frederick William never thought he had reason to 
reproach himself. "May God spare all honest people," 
wrote he to Prince Anhalt, " unnatural children ! It is 
a great sorrow. However, I have before God and the 
world a pure conscience. Admonitions, chastisements, 
kindness, pardon, I have tried all ; nothing has suc- 
ceeded." As to the pardon and kindness of which he 
speaks, we know of no other proofs but some few returns 
to tenderness that interrupted the rain of abuses and 
blows. In the examination to which he submitted 
his conscience, he was partial to himself. He repre- 
sented to this conscience his labor, his trouble, his hard 
life, and compared it to that of this reader of books, 
this flute-player. He thought of his army, his treasure 
amassed crown by crown, and for whom ? For this 
dandy, who preferred a "■roquelaure''^ to the uniform 



THE ATTEMPT AT ESCAPE. 251 

of the Grenadiers, and ran into debt to pay for books, 
music and women. The future that he was preparing 
for his Prussia, and that he saw from afar, as did 
Moses the promised land, without hope of entering it, 
— this future that he pointed out and prescribed, when 
still a young king, for his successors, he saw vanish 
before the idleness of this rhymster and philosopher. 

Then, before God, he believed himself justified to 
use this harshness. He did not render into account, in 
the narrowness of his mind and the fanaticism, of his 
autocratic will, the fact that a person could be other- 
wise formed than he, and that his son had the right 
not to resemble him trait for trait, and that to com- 
mand his army after him, to use his treasure, continue 
his Prussia, it was necessary to possess qualities that 
he did not have. His son's qualities he began to see 
in part, but they ended in irritating him, through 
the effect of a sentiment that he would not admit to 
himself. He was astonished that this "knave" could 
defend. himself with so much assurance and cleverness. 
He was enraged to think that this "rascal," this good- 
for-nothing, could have, as he said, more wit than any 
one else. He was jealous, and his jealousy increased 
his hatred and disfigured it. His successor was to him 
a "dreaded rival." If he allowed his prisoner to es- 
cape from his hands, God knows what he would not 
be cai)able of venturing, with his friends inside the 
kingdom and those outside, — with France and Eng- 
land. To the grievance of the occult relations with 
the foreigners, the king attached himself with obsti- 
nacy; he enlarged upon it, so as to complicate with 



252 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

treason tlie projected flight of the prince. He cer- 
tainly sought for capital accusations.^''^ 

The foreign ministers reported that Seckendorff and 
Grumbkow stirred up the king's anger. They said 
that Grumbkow, master of the situation, wished to dis- 
embarrass himself of the prince, whose vengeance he 
feared. Grumbkow and Seckendorff, in fact, triumphed ; 
their adversaries were conquered. Cnyphausen had 
been sent away, and replaced by Grumbkow's son-in- 
law. The king lavished his declarations of esteem 
upon the two accomplices. All those who surrounded 
him, said he, appeared suspects to him, except Grumb- 
kow,'''^ who alone remained faithful. At last the mar- 
riage negotiations seemed to be buried. The king 
wished no longer that his family should unite with 
that of England, neither at that time nor ever. By 
his order one of his ministers was sent to Guy Dickens, 
and made him this little speech : ' ' Sir, I have been 
required to say to you, on behalf of the king, my mas- 
ter, that the plans of marriage, either single or double, 
must no longer be contemplated. You can make of 
this declaration what use you may deem proper." Guy 
Dickens, after having referred the matter to his court, 
brought to His Majesty's minister this reply : "Sir, I 
come on behalf of the king, my master, to deliver the 
answer to the declaration that you have presented in 
regard to the double marriage. His Majesty com- 
mands me to say that it was the King of Prussia him- 
self who first gave thought to these marriages, to which 
His Majesty gave ear, on his side, through the friend- 
ship that he had for the family of the queen, his sister, 



THE ATTEMPT AT ESCAPE. 253 

and through his attachment to the Protestant religion ; 
that if the King of Prussia had since changed his senti- 
ments in regard to this subject, it was a question of entire 
indifference to His Majesty. He only wished, that, 
from the beginning, the King of Prussia had thought 
this way, for, in that case, no explanations would have 
been necessary between them. With this declaration, 
Sir, you can do as you judge proper." ^^* 

It is true that the Queen of Prussia, instead of con- 
tenting herself with tears, continued to agitate the 
question and intrigue with England. She begged Guy 
Dickens, on the receipt of the news of the arrest of the 
prince, to send to his court, without losing a moment's 
time, a report of her lamentable situation. "She wished 
the King of England to know that all her hope, all 
her confidence, reposed in him. She was convinced 
that he would not abandon her in this trouble." ^^^ 

At the time even when Frederick William denounced 
the consideration of the marriages in the manner of a 
declaration of war, the queen was still petitioning 
the Court of London to address to the king a solemn 
demand for the hand of Wilhelmina. "This is," 
she said, "the only means of appeasing our mad- 
man." ^^^ But, what mattered it to Grumbkow and Seck- 
endorff ? They had every reason to believe that the 
odious intrigue that they carried out through the order 
from Vienna, had succeeded. Content with their success 
and the humiliation of their enemies, was there any- 
thing else they wanted ? Did they work for the de- 
struction of the prince and seek means to lead him to 
the scaffold ? Of course, if they had received news of 



254 FREDEKICK THE GREAT. 

the death of Frederick in prison, the sadness that they 
would have shown, the tears that they would have 
shed, would not have deceived anyone. But these ras- 
cals were not sanguinary. They had not the audacity 
to commit a real crime. They were, besides, well 
enough informed to comprehend that it was not so 
easy to find a means of death in this affair. They 
foresaw that Frederick would survive this danger, into 
which they had helped to lead him. Already, they 
thought of the morrow; they went so far as to prepare 
a role for themselves as peacemakers and instruments 
of pardon. Grumbkow congratulated himself that he 
had not been on the trip when the prince was ar- 
rested. Seckendorff, too, pretended to use his efforts 
toward calming the king and refuting, one by one, his 
arguments. At all events, he did not wish to have 
the air of triumphing over his enemies. One day the 
king, after the dismissal of Cnyphausen, said to him : 
"Well! I have made a clean sweep!" He was con- 
tent to reply with a few words, "muttered in his husky 
voice." Twice, during the crisis, he returned to his 
estates, as a disinterested, inoffensive man.^^^ 

No one advised the king to pronounce the penalty 
of death upon his son. The idea certainly emanated 
from his own brain, and pertinaciously stayed there. 
Don Carlos, of Spain, and Alexis, of Russia, no doubt, 
passed through his unsteady mind during the nocturnal 
apparitions, but his conscience, after all, was worth 
more than those of Philip of Spain and Czar Peter. 
And, besides, he was obliged more than they, to take 
the opinion of the world into consideration. He pre- 



THE ATTEMPT AT ESCAPE. 255 

occupied his mind with what Europe would say, — in 
what she had already said. One of his complaints 
against Frederick and his party was, "that they did 
all they possibly could to represent him to the world 
as a tyrant." ^^^ 

Throughout Europe "there was spread the report of 
the King of Prussia's cruelty." The States-General, 
Sweden and Saxony, wrote letters of intercession for 
the Crown Prince. The King of Sweden pleaded with 
Frederick William that, while placing himself between 
his duties as a king and his duties as a father, to lis- 
ten to his paternal heart. "Your family, your peo- 
ple, the Protestants, all Europe, await this decision of 
your natural kindness, and implore you to make it." 
From London, Degenfeld (who replaced Reichenbach, 
recalled), wrote "that the court was astounded;" that 
"all the good Protestants of the nation were sad- 
dened and grievously troubled ; all awaited that senti- 
ment of His Majesty, which would give free scope to 
his paternal tenderness . . . and which would 
be merciful to the prince and pardon him, for the con- 
solation of the Protestant religion." ^^^ 

The king, it is true, received these supplications 
with a very bad grace. The Swedish Minister, who 
received the letter from his king the latter part of 
August, dared not then put it into the hands of Fred- 
erick William. It did not reach its destination until 
a month after. The king wrote on the margin a single 
word: ^^ Reponatur^''^ meaning, classify it. 

Ginckel, bolder and in better standing at Court, ac- 
quitted himself of his commission from the "High 



256 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

Powers." "Yes," responded the king, "I know that 
the whole world wishes to pass me off as a brutal 
man, and that the prisoner would like to circulate it 
abroad throughout Europe." He feigned to be insen- 
sible to all these rumors, as well as to all these peti- 
tions, and through his ministers made it known that he 
permitted no one, "whoever he may be, to meddle 
with his domestic affairs." Nevertheless, he was troub- 
led. He thought to make a public declaration, and 
prepared a manifesto to the Powers. ^*^° Finally he said 
he was not free enough to decide alone this domestic 
affair. He was not only king; he was Elector of 
Brandenburg. Frederick was not only heir to the 
royal crown of Prussia ; he was heir to the Electorate 
of the Empire. The Imperial Court, it is true, did 
not press him to act. It was not until the latter part 
of October that they suggested to the king, that if 
agreeable to him they would intercede between father 
and son, as they could not, and Frederick William 
was well aware of it, show indifference to the fate "of 
such an eminent member of the Empire." 

All these exterior considerations, added to the scru- 
ples of his conscience, admonished Frederick William 
against these extreme resolutions. Besides, his real 
intentions must not be judged by these actions; the vio- 
lent soothe themselves with violent words. I would 
not dare to say that he did not wish at times, that 
his son might die in prison, but he was incapable of 
having him poisoned or strangled there. It now re- 
mained to have the proceeding against him by means 
of justice. But before what tribunal? The title of 



THE ATTEMPT AT ESCAPE. 257 

member of the empire would follow the accused and 
complicate the trial. And, besides, could the king 
hope that a Prussian tribunal would condemn the Crown 
Prince of Prussia to death? It seems to me, after the 
first burst of anger, that he saw the impossibility of 
a capital condemnation and an execution. 

The idea to which he held the longest was to de- 
prive his son of the crown. He treated him as if he 
were disinherited. He gave Frederick's regiment to 
William. He called his oldest son no longer the Kron- 
prinz^ but "Frederick, the son of the King of Prus- 
sia," or, "Prince Frederick." ^^^ But why, then, did he 
not accept the proposition that Frederick had made to 
the committee the second time that he had been heard 
by them, to renounce his rights? Why was he only 
contented to reply that he did not wish to have him 
again as an officer in his army? No doubt because he 
did not believe in the sincerity of the prince, and be- 
cause he dreaded the troubles that would overturn the 
State after his death. He felt sure that Frederick 
would not abdicate his title of heir-apparent without 
mental reservation, and that the younger brother, Will- 
iam, would have to deal with a powerful opponent. 
And in addition to this, such an act would be void 
without the solemn confirmation that it would be nec- 
essary to demand from the Empire. This was a very 
slow proceeding to follow. It would be submitting, 
before the eyes of all Europe, this family history to 
the judgment of princes and emperors. Who knows 
what would come to pass? The malevolently inclined 
were not lacking among the princes, and Frederick 



258 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

William knew well that lie would be the one to be 
judged. 

In truth there was but one solution — death. This 
was impossible. What was to be done? For it seemed 
something must be done. 

From the first day Frederick William had qualified 
his son's act as desertion. Frederick, the colonel, 
wished to desert: he was then subject to examination by 
court-martial. The king was speaking of a court- 
martial, when the prince asked for communion at Ciis- 
trin. The 21st of September he formally ordered the 
arraignment of the deserter. A month later he formed 
the court-martial under the presidency of Lieutenant- 
General von Schulenberg, and at the same time referred 
to him the accomplices of the prince: Keith, who re- 
ally deserted ; Katte,- who premeditated desertion, and 
had partly put it into execution; Lieutenant von Spaen, 
who ordered the carriage at Leipsic in December, 1729; 
Lieutenant von Ingersleben, who knew of Frederick's 
plan (for he accompanied Katte on the night visit at 
Potsdam, the evening before the departure of the king), 
and besides this he favored the love affair of the prince 
with the daughter of the Cantor. The court com- 
posed of three major-generals, three colonels, three lieu- 
tenant-colonels, three majors and three captains, had 
its sitting the 25th of October, at Kopenick. Each 
group had one voice and the president one. 

What judgment did the king expect of this council 
concerning his son? He had seen, little by little, in 
the course of the examination, the accusation weaken 
and melt in his hands. There had never been discov- 



THE ATTEMPT AT ESCAPE. 259 

ered either the written promise given by Frederick 
to marry the Princess Amelia, or the intrigues of Rot- 
tenburaf. The foreisjn relations were reduced to his ask- 
ing England for shelter, which had been refused; the 
king himself was obliged to agree to that: "It is cer- 
tain," wrote he to Prince Anhalt, "that England knew 
all, but that she tried to dissuade him from the de- 
sertion." The prince had declared that he wished to 
retire to France, and Katte had advised him to stop 
in Alsace, at Count Rottenburg's home, but of a po- 
litical intrigue with France, of a complicity with her, 
there was no trace. ^°^ 

There remained the simple desertion, but the accused 
did not acknowledge this crime. He wished to run 
away, because he was badly treated; he was a son who 
wished to fly from the mistreatment he received from 
his father— that was all. ' ' This little knave, " said the 
king, "has invincible cleverness and hard-headedness 
in defending himself, and is continually opposed to 
saying that he wished to desert." The king ended by 
fearing that he would find nothing convicting at all 
in this "trial of sorcerers." He even went so far 
sometimes as to treat the affair as an " escapade," 
then, the moment after, swore only by ' ' the gibbet 
and wheel." He could not resign himself to let them 
say that all this harshness was excited over a "youth- 
ful prank." He promised Degenfeld to show him 
proof of a projected scheme, well and duly considered, 
that had been agitating for over a year. He watched 
the drawing up of the excerpts from the facts of the 
examination, prepared by the auditor. General Mylius, 



260 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

which he had the design to publish (but which he did 
not publish, however). 

The same day that he called the court-martial he 
had them read this mandate. He ordered the effacing 
of the title of ' ' Highness " everywhere it was given to 
the j^rince. He complained of the minutes, and com- 
manded Mylius "seriously" to bear stronger on the 
idea that ''His Majesty has not without cause done 
what he has done . . , otherwise, for ten who would 
give the right to the king, there would be ten who 
would give the right to the prince." He wished that 
this document should not be simply an extract, but a 
very particular manifesto, "so that the people will 
not believe that the king has refused bread to his 
son, and that the prince has been constrained by neces- 
sity to do what he has done, while the king has had his 
motives to leave nothing to the disposition of the prince 
outside of his actual needs." If I am not deceived, he 
discloses by these words a sort of uneasiness of being 
condemned by the public; he was nearly resigned to 
content himself with proving that he had good reasons 
for being severe. 

Those who observed Frederick William closely dur- 
ing these last days came to the conclusion that he had 
arrived at that point where he himself no longer knew 
what he wanted. It appears to me clearly that he gave 
no more thought to a capital condemnation, or even to 
Frederick's renunciation of the paternal crown. ^"^ 

THE JUDGMENT. 

For two days, the 25th and 26th of October, the 
court-martial heard the reading of the actions of the 



THE ATTEMPT AT ESCAPE. 201 

examination. The 27th, the captains, majors, lieu- 
tenant-colonels, colonels and major-generals deliberated 
separately on their vote. 

The judges were unanimous concerning Keith. He 
had shamelessly left the service, deserted; he must be 
called three times by beat of drum. If he does not 
appear his sword must be broken, and his efRgy hung 
on the gibbet. 

In regard to Lieutenant Ingersleben, the captains 
held against him nothing but the accusation of hav- 
ing made some commissions to the daughter of the 
Cantor of Potsdam, a thing he knew to be disagree- 
able to His Majesty; they stipulated for him, two 
months' imprisonment added to that which he had already 
endured. The majors, in the same cause, provided 
that the said lieutenant could have dispensed with the 
evening promenades with the prince, and still more 
with carrying presents to the girl, stipulated for six 
months' imprisonment, but, considering the long con- 
finement he had undergone, begged His Majesty, in 
all submission, to consider well, in his gracious kind- 
ness, the penalty he had already suffered, and lighten 
his punishment. The lieutenant-colonels saw, besides 
his relation to the girl, the fact that, through the order 
of the prince, the lieutenant had notified Katte to come 
to Potsdam, and had sheltered him at his own house on 
the eve of the departure for Anspach; they agreed to 
six months' imprisonment, without extenuation. The 
colonels came to the same conclusion, adding that, if 
the accused had really informed Katte at Potsdam, 
through the order of the prince, he had known noth- 



262 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

ing of the projected ^h^etirade'''' (retreat). The gen- 
erals counted only the participation in the gallant ad- 
venture, they remarked that the accused had never 
arranged the meetings; that he had only ke2)t the 
prince company; and, all in all, carried some presents 
to the young girl. They voted three months' impris- 
onment in a fortress. 

Concerning Lieutenant Spaen, the captains agreed 
that the accused had ordered a carriage for the prince 
at Leipsic, in the month of November, 1729; that dur- 
ing the journey from Anspach he had read, at Berlin, 
a letter written by the prince to Katte, and thus knew 
the plan; that, without taking part in the affair, he 
had not revealed it, as was his duty; accordingly he 
should be cashiered and receive two years' im^^rison- 
ment. The majors, for the same reasons, agreed to 
cashiering him and six years' imprisonment. The lieu- 
tenant-colonels agreed that, as there was enough proof 
to presume that the lieutenant would have followed 
the fugitives, to his being cashiered and subject to 
arrest in a fortress until he should receive His Maj- 
esty's pardon. The colonels, who did not prejudge 
the intentions of the accused, cashiered him and sub- 
jected him to three years in the fortress. The gen- 
erals cashiered him and gave him two years im^^ris- 
onment. 

Concerning Lieutenant Katte, the captains agreed, 
that the first i)roposition of flight had been made to 
the said lieutenant by the prince, who afterwards con- 
versed with him often upon the subject and by different 
ways, but that the prince would not have gone so far 



THE ATTEMPT AT ESCAPE. 263 

in his project if Katte had not supported him in it, 
if he had not made different propositions to him, pro- 
cured the post-route, suggested, as a place of sojourn, 
the estates of Count Rottenburg, offered to dress as a 
postilion, so as to be able the more readily to fly with 
him, and ordered, finally, a gray coat with silver gal- 
loon; in consideration that Katte himself acknowledged 
that he would have followed the prince if he had left 
the country; that instead of revealing the design to 
Colonel Rochow, as was his duty, he had deceived the 
said colonel through his assurances; in consideration 
that his said excuse, "that he would have tried to turn 
the prince from his project," was void, since he was 
still ready at the last moment to go; but also, taking 
into account that he did not carry into execution these 
projected plans, he therefore could not be punished in 
the customary way for the accomplished act; and, to 
sum up, it was not to be presumed that the projects 
concerted between him and the prince would ever have 
been accomplished — conformably to the duties of their 
solemn oath, condemn Katte to imprisonment in a 
fortress for life. 

The majors articled and numbered the principal ac- 
cusations, and omitted no detail, neither the nego- 
tiation of money for the ^^echapcMe^'''' nor the full 
purse of louis d'or in readiness for the desertion — - they 
pronounced this word, evaded by the captains — nor the 
deposit at the house of the accused of the pretiosa^ and 
some letters of the prince, nor the library that he had 
ordered to be sent to Hamburg. They added the com- 
plaints omitted by the captains, to-wit: The relations 



264 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

with the foreign ministers, the intrigues with Hotham 
and Guy Dickens, the knowledge of the letters written 
to the King of England, and this complaint, above all, 
that the accused ought not to bring up in his defence the 
bad treatment that the Crown Prince received from his 
father, for it was unbecoming an officer and a vassal to 
interfere in affairs between father and son, king and 
successor. Consequently, they declared, that although 
the desertion was not effectually carried out, it resulted 
clearly, from facts enumerated, that Katte merited 
death by the sword. 

The lieutenant-colonels, in consideration that this 
man — dieser Mensch — should have done everything to 
prevent the thoughtless projects conceived by this 
young seignor; in consideration that, if the act had 
been accomplished, he would have been the cause of 
great sorrow to His Majesty, and that other bad results 
would have been the consequence, concluded: That 
Katte ought to lose his life by the sword, to serve as an 
example; but, in consequence of his not executing com- 
pletely his wicked design, and seeing that from the 
declaration made by the Crown Prince that, if the ac- 
cused is condemned to death. His Highness will never 
have an easy conscience the remainder of his life, 
they beg His Majesty, in his mercy, to lighten the 
punishment. 

The colonels decided on death, but prayed His Maj- 
esty to reflect well, in his goodness and mercy, that 
this enterprise, although fully meditated, had had no 
result whatever; that there was much " youthfulness " 
displayed in it all, and that the accused showed great 



THE ATTEMPT AT ESCAPE. 265 

and sincere repentance. They begged His Majesty 
then to commute the penalty of death to that of im- 
prisonment for life. 

The generals, after having twice recalled the fact 
that Katte, by his testimony and by that of the Crown 
Prince, surrounded with difficulties the projected flight, 
concluded that, after having duly reflected and weighed 
the matter well — that Katte deserved imprisonment for 
life. 

Concerning the prince, the captains declared, first, 
that although they were in the position of judging 
him as an ofticer, they could not regard as a real ab- 
sence — ahserdirung — a plan of flight not realized; the 
prince seemed to them to be punished enough by de- 
priving him of his rank as colonel, and by the rigor- 
ous imprisonment at Ciistrin. Then, considering that 
the principal point of the accusation rested upon the 
disobedience to the paternal will, they withdrew their 
decision. As this is a matter which concerns father 
and son alone, as the Crown Prince humiliates himself 
before His Majesty, and submits in all things to his 
will; as he asks for nothing but his pardon, and prom- 
ises to do everything His Majesty exacts and com- 
mands, they cannot, in their functions as vassals and 
subjects, pronounce sentence upon the son and family 
of their king. 

The majors, after having accused Katte (without 
whose agreement and complicity the design would have 
remained a mere matter of discourse), made for the 
prince the distinction, of which they refused to give 
Katte the benefit, between the intention and the act; 



266 frei:erick the great. 

they also concluded that the affair rested between 
father and son; they recalled the submission and the 
promises of the prince, and declared themselves incom- 
petent to judge; it is for the paternal power and royal 
authority to punish; the judgment of a court of justice 
would be usurping this power and authority; neither 
officer, vassal nor subject has the right to judge the 
son of the king. Such a judgment would not be 
valid. 

The lieutenant-colonels enumerated at great length 
the complaints against the prince, but they partly ex- 
onerated him by blaming the very wicked men who 
had given him their counsel; they recalled his re- 
pentance, his promises, the rigor of his arrest, and, in 
consideration that they could find neither laws, edicts 
nor customs ^ applicable to the circumstance, declared 
that they could do nothing, under their oath, duty and 
conscience, but to place the prince under the very high 
and paternal care of His Majesty. 

The colonels, after having j)i'otested that they had 
weighed this delicate subject conformably to the sol- 
emn oath that they had taken to His Majesty and all 
his House, felt themselves obliged, according to their 
knowledge and conscience, as faithful and devoted vas- 
sals, as responsible judges not only before the world, 
but before the severe tribunal of God, to express in all 
obedience, submission and humility, that they felt 
much too small and weak to pass judgment upon the 
person of His Royal Highness, the Crown Prince. 
They considered that the projected retreat — Retirade — • 
was an affair of State and family, between a great king 



THE ATTEMPT AT ESCAPE. 267 

and his son; that it was an act relating to paternal 
230wer, in which no court-martial or laical power could 
have the audacity to meddle. They concluded with 
the repentance, the submission, the promises of the 
prince, who threw himself at the feet of His Majesty, 
his great and just king, who was also the most gracious 
and merciful of kings. 

The generals, after careful examination of the acts, 
concluded, not only of themselves, but through the 
avowals and submission of His Highness, that the prince 
had offended His Majesty; but they also saw that he 
implored in all humility the pardon of the king, his 
father. In their character of officers and faithful, 
obedient vassals, in virtue of this innate duty of the oath 
under which they were bound to the king and all his 
Royal House, and to which they would cling until 
death, they concluded, in their restricted knowledge, 
and after conscientious examination, that an officer and 
vassal failed in the fulfillment of his duties if he thought 
himself authorized to pronounce, on such a matter, a 
legal sentence. 

It now remained to have the votum of the president. 
In com^^aring the vota the general found, in that which 
concerned Keith, unanimity upon the penalty of death; 
in that which concerned the prince, unanimity upon the 
incompetency of the council; in that which concerned 
Ingersleben, one voice for two months' imprisonment 
besides that to which he had already been subjected, 
one for six months' imprisonment, with deduction of the 
time already spent there, two for six full months' im- 
prisonment, one for three months'; concerning Spaen, 



268 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

unanimity for cashiering, two voices for imprisonment 
for two years, one for six years, one for indefinite im- 
prisonment, one for imprisonment for two years; con- 
cerning Katte, two voices for imprisonment for life, 
three for death. 

The president-general concluded in pronouncing the 
penalty of death upon Keith, and incompetency con- 
cerning the judgment of the prince; for Ingersleben, he 
joined his vote with those who proposed imprisonment for 
six months, with the deduction of that to which he 
had already submitted; for Spaen, he voted cashiering 
and imprisonment for three years. 

The life of Katte was in his hands: he could save 
it if he voted for imprisonment for life. This part of 
his votum was as lengthy as all the other articles put 
together. He therein expounds that, if Katte had given 
bad advice to the prince and promised several different 
times his aid in the flight, the plan was never actually 
accomplished; that there was never either place or day 
fixed, and for this reason there is lacking the conditions 
for the execution of a certain and infallible project. 
In consideration that his good sense could not prevent 
him from thinking that, even for the greatest cnmes 
there was a difference between the perpetration and 
the preparation, according to his knowledge and con- 
science, and the solemn oath to which he was bound, 
he could not conclude for the penalty of death, and 
joined those who were for life imprisonment. 

Consequently the judgment was rendered, through 
which the court-martial, upon a resume of the vota, 
remitted the Crown Prince to the very high and pa- 



THE ATTEMPT AT ESCAPE. 269 

ternal grace of His Majesty, condemned Katte to per- 
petual fortress imprisonment; Keith to execution in 
effigy, after the customary citations; Spaen to the an- 
nulment of his office and three years of the fortress; 
Ingersleben to six months of fortress, with deduction 
of imprisonment to which he had already submitted. 

This judgment was rendered by brave as well as 
shrewd people. Upon them weighed the terror spread 
throughout the court and army, the hidden desire of 
the king, the feeling that, in judging the son and his 
accomplices they were judging the father also, that is to 
say, their master, and this before the kingdom, before 
Germany, Europe. To absolve the son was to condemn 
the father; but to condemn the son, what injustice! It 
was too evident that the son had good reasons for flight. 
The accused, whom the judges had before them, was 
not a Colonel Frederick guilty of attempted desertion; 
he was a son, beaten, outraged and dishonored by his 
father. This son was a- prince, a Royal Prince, the 
Kronprinz of Prussia. To distinguish between the 
two positions of Crown Prince and colonel was impos- 
sible. The first, which included the second, was be- 
yond the judgment of a court-martial. 

In our days, in the limited and disputed monarchies, 
the person of the prince remains privileged. Even in our 
Republic (France) the inheritors to the rights of a broken 
crown, whose diamonds have been sold at auction, are 
placed above the common law, and submitted, as if they 
were exceptional beings, to exceptional laws. There is, 
for them, when they fall under the ban of these laws, 
a particular regime of prison life, and a lodging in the 



270 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

tower of tlie old Palace of Saint Louis. Why should 
the Prussians, a century and a half ago, subjects of a 
budding royalty, which was the cause of the ex- 
istence of the Fatherland, or rather was itself the 
Fatherland — why, I repeat, should they not feel them- 
selves too small, too "weak," too "powerless," as the 
judges at Kopenick said, to judge the inheritor of their 
crown? And so it was necessary that the court-martial 
should send the son to his father: which was done, but 
with all kinds of precautions. 

The judges weighed their words, one by one. They 
accorded, without caviling at a detail, the wrong of the 
premeditation, and the preparatory acts for flight, but 
they sought and found, in order to designate the act not 
criminal, words which diminished, attenuated, and 
finally did away with it altogether: Hetirade, Ecliapade^ 
Absentirimg. They placed, above all, the wrong of 
disobedience to the father and king, so as to send him 
back to the father and king, as the only competent 
judge. Of this judgment, even, they pre-judged ad- 
roitly, delicately, forcing the pardon through the ex- 
j^ression of submission and repentance of the culprit. 
In the drawing up of the judgment they gave to the 
prince his honors, the title of Highness that the king 
had crossed off, the name of Crown Prince, of which 
he had been divested. They made the king under- 
stand that their innate duty of fidelity was addressed 
not only to one, but to all his House. They excused 
themselves in meaning implied, although unexpressed, 
by doing only what they supposed to be his will, on 
their devotion, profound respect, and religious fidelity, 



THE ATTEMPT AT ESCAPE. 271 

and then retired, after a salute as officers to their 
chief, after an obeisance as vassals before the king, 
their sovereign. 

As for the principal accomplice, Katte, all the 
world believed him lost in advance. '-He will not," 
wrote the French minister, "be spared the loss of his 
head.'' "He will have much trouble," said Grumbkow, 
"in getting out of this affair." Without doubt, this 
opinion had its influence ujoon the judges, and perhajjs 
they wished, without acknowledging it, to do, in some 
points, the will of the king. Besides, Katte was very 
guilty. He was really an officer who wished to desert. 
Through obedience to the future master, he revolted 
against the then present master. It is certain that he 
"strengthened" the prince in his design, when a refusal 
to be his accomj^lice would have ended in the abandon- 
ment of the project, and certain also that his ambition 
assisted his chivalrous devotion to the prince. In strict 
justice, he was liable to the penalty of death; but what 
injustice is strict justice I The extenuating circum- 
stances were numerous in the trial: this, primarily, that 
the prince, the principal one accused, was not con- 
demned; then the execution had not followed the inten- 
tion; lastly, the "amount of youthfulness " in it all. Two 
votes accorded to Katte the benefit of extenuating cir- 
cumstances; two others pronounced the penalty of 
death, adding a petition to the king to accord this bene- 
fit to the condemned; one alone, that of the majors, 
voted for death without a reticent phrase. 

Lieutenant-General Schulenburg, an honest and very 
religious man (who was seventy years old, and conse- 



272 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

quently neither feared nor hoped for anything more 
from man), put in the urn the vote of Minerva. Thanks 
to him, the judges of Kopenick gave good judgment. 

THE JUSTICE OF THE KING. 

On receipt of the judgment, the king wrote the fol- 
lowing note, in which there are two illegible words: 
Votum Hegiis (sic). 

"They must judge according to the law, and not 
beat about the bush, and as Katte has well . . . , the 
court-martial will ha^ve to convene again and . . . judge 
otherwise . . ."^o^ 

Several days after, commenting on this order, he ac- 
cused the judges of vile intentions. "I thought that 
I had found men of honor, who would not forget their 
duty, who would not adore the Rising Sun, and would 
consult alone their conscience and the honor of their 
king." He called the judgment an "infidelity com- 
mitted against him," the cause of which was that these 
people were already "looking toward the future." 
These people he knew better now, and he promised 
himself that he would not lose an occasion "to anni- 
hilate those who upheld his children against him." So 
he felt himself condemned by this leniency: "They 
wished to have this project of the prince and his courti- 
ers pass off as a childish prank, which would not de- 
serve such a punishment." ^°^ 

The note of the king was sent to the president gen- 
eral who wrote on the back: — The Fifth Book of Moses 
(Deuteronomy), Chapter XVL, verses 8 to 12; Second 
Book of Samuel, Chapter XVIII., verses 10 to 12; Sec- 



THE ATTEMPT AT ESCAPE. 273 

Olid Book of Chronicles, Chapter XIX., verses 5, 6 
and 7. 

The Holy Scriptures say in the j)assages cited from 
Samuel: 

'< 10. And a certain man saw it, and told Joab, and 
said. Behold, I saw Absalom hanged in an oak. 11. 
And Joab said unto the man that told him, and behold, 
thou sawest him, and why didst thou not smite him 
there to the ground? and I would have given thee 
ten shekels of silver, and a girdle. 12. And the man 
said unto Joab, though I should receive a thousand 
shekels of silver in mine hand, yet would I not put 
forth mine hand against the king's son: for in our hear- 
ing the king charged thee and Abishai and Ittai, say- 
ing. Beware that none touch the young man Absalom." 

The Holy Scriptures say, in the passage cited from 
Chronicles : 

"5. And he set judges in the land throughout all 
the fenced cities of Judah, city by city. 6. And 
said to the judges. Take heed what ye do: for ye 
judge not for man, but for the Lord, who is with 
you in the judgment. 7. Wherefore now let the 
fear of the Lord be upon you; take heed and do it; 
for there is no iniquity with the Lord our God, nor 
respect of persons, nor taking of gifts." 

In the citation from Deuteronomy the Scripture 
says: 

"8. Six days shalt thou eat unleavened bread: and 
on the seventh shall be a solemn assembly to the Lord 
thy God: thou shalt do no work therein. 9. Seven 
weeks shalt thou number unto thee: begin to number 



274 FREDEKICK THE GREAT. 

the seven weeks from such time as thou beginnest to 
put the sickle to the corn. 10. And thou shalt keep 
the feast of weeks unto the Lord thy God, with a 
tribute of free-will offering of thine hand, which thou 
shalt give unto the Lord thy God, according as the 
Lord thy God hath blessed thee: 11. And thou shalt 
rejoice before the Lord thy God, thou, and thy son, 
and thy daughter, and thy man-servant, and thy maid- 
servant, and the Levite that is within thy gates, and 
the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, that 
are among you, in the place which the Lord thy God 
hath chosen to place his name there." 

Thus the Scripture forbids, in the Book of Samuel, 
"laying hands on the king's son;" it orders in Chron- 
icles "to judge not for man." It wishes that he who 
has put "the sickle to the corn," in shutting his son 
up in the prison of Ciistrin seven weeks before, "shall 
keep the feast of weeks unto the Lord his God, and re- 
joice in the presence of the Lord, he, and his son, and 
his daughter." The judges, who had founded thus 
their judgment upon God and the Holy Scriptures, could 
not modify it for the note of a king. The court-martial 
met again for the second time, the 31st of October 
and maintained the vote that its president expressed in 
these terms; "After having again matured and reflected 
well, as to whether the sentence pronounced could remain 
intact, I find myself convinced, on my conscience, that I 
have voted according^ to mv best knowleds^e and con- 
science, and according to the solemn oath under which 
I am bound, and it must remain unchanged. To cliange 
it would be against my conscience, and is not in my 
power." 2'>« 



THE ATTEMPT AT ESCAPE. 275 

Then the king judged in his turn. He declared him- 
self satisfied with the judgments concerning Lieuten- 
ants Si^aen and Ingersleben, — he even pardoned the 
latter, in consideration of the long arrest to which he 
had already been subjected. "Concerning Lieutenant 
Katte and his crime, and the sentence passed on him by 
the court-martial. His Majesty, it is true, is not accus- 
tomed to increase the judgments of the court-martials; 
ordinarily they are made lighter than otherwise, but 
this Katte is not only an officer in the service of my 
army; he is one of my Body Guard. And if, in 
the whole army, all my ofiicers must be faithful to 
me, the greater reason for having that kind of ofiicers 
in regiments such as this one, which is privileged to be 
immediately attached to the very high person of His 
Royal Majesty and his royal House . . . So, as this 
Katte has plotted desertion with "To-morrow's Sun," 
and as he has intrigued with Foreign Ministers and 
Envoys . . . His Majesty does not know what bad 
reasons have prevented the court-martial from condemn- 
ing him to death. According to this way of acting, His 
Majesty can no longer trust either in his officers or ser- 
vitors that are on oath and duty at present; for things 
which happen once in the world can often come to pass 
afterward, and there are those who would do the same 
thing, taking example from that which happened to 
Katte, if he found himself getting out of the difficulty 
so easily and so well; they would believe that the same 
thing would happen to them. His Majesty also went 
to school in his youth, learned there the Latin maxim: 
Fiat justitia et pereat mundus. He intends then, that 



276 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

by the law, Katte — although conformably to it he merits, 
on account of the crime committed of leze-majesty, to be 
tortured with hot tongs and hung — must be deprived 
of life, out of consideration for his family, by means 
of the sword. In announcing the sentence of Katte, 
the council should say it is done with great sorrow by 
His Majesty, but that it is better that he should die, 
than that justice should have no place in the world." ^°' 

A terrible letter, since it gives death; awful in its 
tone — so serious, solemn and unconstrained. But this 
judge, must in his turn, be judged. Inlaw, he had rea- 
son. Katte wished to desert. He conspired with the 
Foreign Ministers; he had committed an act of high 
treason; but ought not the king to have searched his 
own heart, and sought to find his responsibility, and 
acknowledge, finally, that he himself had been culpable 
towards the prince, and that his son, on the other side, 
had been the instigator of Katte's crime? In equity, 
before God, he owed a reparation of his wrongs to- 
wards his son, and of the wrongs of his son towards 
Katte, and this reparation was clemency; but just that 
which was the true extenuating circumstance in Katte's 
favor, namely, that the initiative came from the prince, 
aggravated the crime in the eyes of the king. 

It is no longer the impartial judge that speaks of 
the schemes plotted with the " Rising Sun;" it is 
Frederick William, with his passions, uneasiness and 
jealousy. He represents to himself what will come to 
pass at the "Rising" of this "Sun:" The doors of 
the fortress will open for Katte, and King Frederick, 
second of the name, and Katte, his favorite, will mock 



THE ATTEMPT AT ESCAPE. 277 

him when he will be resting in his tomb. In the 
meanwhile, the world will think that "this project of 
the prince and his courtiers is nothing but a childish 
prank." If the trial ends with the sentence of the 
court-martial, it is the king who will lose. The rea- 
sons of i^ublic discipline and military honor that he 
gives in his considerations are grave and just; he says 
them sincerely, but he deceives himself if he thinks 
he has no others more secret than these — others that 
stir the very depths of a conscience and determine it. 
He wished to avenge and justify himself at one and 
the same time; for this, was necessary, not the pen — 
but the sword. 

THE EXECUTION OF KATTE. 

On November 2, Katte was led before the court- 
martial. Kept in rigorous secrecy, watched over as a 
prey, he had wavered during those long weeks between 
fear and hope. 

When the judges read their sentence and that of the 
king, he accepted with a good grace: "I resign myself," 
said he, "to the will of Providence and the king. I 
have committed no bad action, and if I die, it is in a good 
cause." He tried, however, to save his life. He wrote 
to his grandfather. Field Marshal von Alvensleben, to 
beg him to intercede with the king. He hoped no 
longer for the influence of his father. General Katte, 
had, in fact, after his son's arrest, addressed a suppli- 
ant letter to the king, but obtained no other response 
than this: "Your son is of the canaille; mine also; 
we can do nothing for either one of them." The old 



278 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

Field Marshal would perhaps have a better answer. 
Katte begged him to see that the following supplication, 
all burning with a vivid passion to live, should reach 
the king: "The error of my youth, my weakness, my 
foolishness, my mind, that thought not of the evil, my 
heart filled with love and pity, the vain illusion of my 
youth, which hid not bad designs, asks, in all humility, 
pardon, mercy, compassion, pity, clemency." He recom- 
mended himself to God, King and Master of masters, 
who makes mercy pass the bands of the law, and through 
His kindness leads those who strayed away to the right 
path again. He quoted the examples of noted peni- 
tents: " Saul," said he, " did not disobey so far, nor did 
David have so great a thirst for evil that they did not 
have, at least, sincerity in their conversion." 

A most touching letter, notwithstanding its affected 
style: "A dying tree is even spared when there is hope 
of saving it. Why not my tree, which already shows 
fresh buds of new submission and fidelity, why cannot 
it find pardon from Your Majesty? Why must it fall, 
while yet in blossom?" 

In transmitting this despairing appeal to the king, 
Alvensleben joined thereto his supplications. He hoped 
that his most gracious seignior "would harken to the 
prayers and tears of a very old man." He would bear 
all pain for his grandson. He only asked for " the life 
of the unfortunate one, so that he might ponder avcU 
over his faults, repent earnestly, and so save his soul." 
"The All-powerful God will bounteously restore," said 
he, "to Your Royal Majesty that which you will give 
in your great mercy to an old man bowed down with 



THE ATTEMPT AT ESCAPE. 279 

grief." He recalled the sacrifice of his life so often 
offered to the Empire, the fidelity with which he had 
served His Royal Majesty, and the dangers the father of 
the unfortunate one had encountered so frequently in the 
service of the said Majesty, and of his Royal House. 
"I hold in all submission the confidence that Your 
Royal Majesty, since these few drops of blood can no 
longer serve you, will deign to return our son to us, 
for our prayer and tears, and that you will not wish 
i^y gi'^y liairs to be borne to the tomb with such a 
sorrow." ^"^^ 

The king replied that he was pained to the heart on 
account of the misfortune that had come to Lieutenant 
Katte, since he was so near and dear to the field mar- 
shal. But he recalled the considerations of the con- 
demnation pronounced by him. "I am not in a con- 
dition to pardon him," said he. He forbade a renew- 
ing of the intercession: "In this affair no one can 
meddle, unless I give the order." All the grace he 
could give he had already given. "This man much 
deserved being torn with red-hot tongs. However, in 
consideration of the General Field Marshal and Lieu- 
tenant-General Katte, I have mitigated the penalty, in 
ordering that, for the example and warning of others, 
he must have his head cut off. I am your most affec- 
tionate king." ^o^ 

The 3d of November, Frederick William informed 
General Lepell that Katte was to be taken to Cilstrin 
to be beheaded. The execution should take place under 
the windows of the prince. " If this place is not large 
enough, another must be chosen, where the i)rince can 



280 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

see it well." ^^^ The same day Major Scback, of the Body 
Guard, presented himself with an escort of thirty men 
before the prison; ^" he entered Katte's cell. "I have the 
order from His Majesty," said he to Katte, "to be 
present at your execution. Twice I have refused, but 
I must obey. God knows what it will cost me ! May 
Heaven grant that the king's heart may be changed, 
and that at the last moment I may have the joy to an- 
nounce to you your pardon." " You are most kind," 
said Katte; "lam content with my fate. I die for a 
seignior that I love, and I have the consolation of giv- 
ing him by my death the greatest proof of my de- 
votion." 

In the carriage which took him away was seated Com- 
mander Schack, a sub-officer, and the Reverend Miiller, 
Chaplain of the regiment of the Body Guard. As soon 
as the cortege had left the city the Chaplain commenced 
to intone Psalms, among which was this one: "Far 
from my thoughts, vain world, begone;" and when 
they arrived at the place where they were to spend the 
night, Katte expressed a desire to write to his father; 
they left him alone, but when the major-general re- 
entered he found him walking to and fro. "It is too 
hard a task," said he. " I am so troubled that I cannot 
make a beginning." He wrote it, however, and it was 
a sincere, beautiful letter. 

He stirred up his very inmost thoughts. He re- 
called the trouble his father had taken to give him an 
education, in the hope that his old age would be com- 
forted with the success of his son. He too had thought 
to promote himself in the world. "How I believed in 



THE ATTEMPT AT ESCAPE. 281 

my good fortune, my happiness; how I was filled with 
the certainty of vanity ! Vain hope ! Of what emj^ti- 
ness are the thoughts of men composed ! How sadly 
the scene of my life ends ! How different my present 
state to that which I imagined in my dreams ! I must, 
instead of following the road to honor and glory, 
take that which leads to shame and a criminal's 
death!" But this road God had chosen for him: the 
ways of God are not those of the world, and the 
ways of men are not those of God! "Cursed ambi- 
tion, which glides into the heart from early child- 
hood," destroys you by separating you from God for- 
ever. "Understand well, my father, and truly believe 
that it is God who disposes of me, God, without 
whose will nothing can happen, not even the fall of a 
sparrow to the ground . . . The harder, the more bit- 
ter the form of death, the more agreeable and sweet the 
hope of salvation ! What is the shame and dishonor of 
this death, in comparison to the great future? Console 
yourself, my father ! God has given you other sons, 
to whom He will accord, perhaps, more happiness in 
this world, and who will give to you, my father, the 
joy for which you have vainly hoped from me, and this, I 
sincerely desire, will come to pass. I thank you with 
a filial respect for the true paternal love you have 
show^n toward me from my infancy to this day. May 
the All-powerful God render to you a hundred-fold this 
love that you have given me! May He spare you to 
a ripe old age! May He nourish you in haj^piness, and 
quench your thirst with the grace of His Holy Spirit ! " ^^^ 
He added a few words for his father's wife, whom he 



282 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

had loved as if she had been his own mother, and for his 
brothers and sisters, excusing himself for not expressing 
his whole thought at length. "I am at the portals of 
death! I must think of entering with a pure heart and 
sanctified soul. I have no time to lose!" He wished 
however to make a copy of his letter^ written on a loose 
sheet of paper, but, the pastor having told him that his 
time w^as too precious, he had to be content with request- 
ing the Major to make a cleaner copy. He ate and 
drank, and then commenced a spiritual conversation 
with the pastor. His piety exalting him, he made him- 
self believe that he was going to the scaffold with joy, 
and that, if it had been permitted him to choose 
between life and death, he would have taken death, for 
never again would he be so well prepared. At ten 
o'clock, after being prayed for, he went to bed and slept 
profoundly. 

The next day, along the route, he denied ever having 
been an atheist. Of course, he had oftentimes sus- 
tained the thesis of atheism, but it was to make his bril- 
liancy admired; for he had remarked, in the bright con- 
versations of society, this appeared to be a charm. They 
stopped over night once more en route; for this journey 
towards death, which could have been ended in one day, 
was made by order, with desperate slowness. In the 
evening, Katte was calm, and drank his coffee, his favorite 
beverage, with pleasure. 

Towards noon, on the 5th of November, they were in 
sight of Ciistrin. As the escort arrived at the bridge of 
the Oder, the rain which had been falling incessantly, 
stopped ; a ray of sunshine ap])eared. " That is a good 



THE ATTEMPT AT ESCAPE 283 

sign," said he, "here begins the sunshine of grace for 
me." Did he speak only of the divine grace? But 
Colonel Reichraann was already there to receive the pris- 
oner, at the door of the fortress. He took him by the 
hand and led him to a room above the entrance gate; 
two beds had been j^repared there, one for Katte, the 
other for the pastor. Schack learned then from the Col- 
onel that the execution was to be the following day at 
7 o'clock, and that he must lead the condemned, escorted 
by his thirty troopers, into a circle of one hundred and 
fifty men taken from the garrison. He immediately 
went to Katte and said with a trembling heart : " Your 
end is perhaps nearer than you think." Without flinch- 
ing, Katte said: "When?" And, upon the Major's 
answer: " So much the better; the sooner it is ended 
the more contented will I be." 

Charitable souls were employed in making this last 
journey more comfortable. General Lepell sent him a 
repast with some beer and wine. The President of the 
Chamber of Domains, Mlinchow, sent him a second 
meal, with some Hungarian wine. Katte did honor to 
both repasts. The Reverend Mliller sent for his col- 
league, the Chaplain of the garrison of CUstrin, whose 
assistance he implored. The religious conversations be- 
gan again. Night came on. At eight o'clock, Schack 
and other officers entered the room, and they prayed and 
sang with the pastors and Katte. An hour after, u})on 
the request of the two ministers, who wished to remain 
alone with the condemned, they retired. 

It was perhaps on this last night that Katte wrote a 
few words to the prince, lie said that he was leaving 



284 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

the world without blaming him in the least for the cause 
of his death, and without having any ill-feelings toward 
him; that God had led him through this rugged path so 
as to awaken and excite his true repentance; that the 
main reason of his unhappiness was his ambition, and 
his contempt for God. He prayed the prince not to 
bear any anger toward the king since his death was only 
an act of God's justice; to submit to the Royal Majesty 
of his father who was his seignior and king. He im- 
plored him through Christ's wounds, to be obedient to 
His Majesty, and to remember the divine promises of the 
fourth Commandment. He hoped that his misfortune 
would teach the prince the emptiness of designs to which 
God has not consented, for the prince had desired to 
heap Katte with benefits and grandeur, and behold to 
what end all these fine projects had led! May the prince 
ponder these things well, and give his heart to God.^^^ 

Among these counsels and exhortations to piety tow- 
ards the king and towards God, Katte glided his personal 
justification; he called the prince to witness that he had 
once implored him to submit to the Majesty of his father, 
citing the example of Absalom to him, and that he had 
given him some stirring example of it in the encamp- 
ment in Saxony, and again in his nocturnal visit to Pots- 
dam. Why these lines for his defence under which lie 
reproaches aimed at the prince? It seems to me, with- 
out acknowledging it to himself, the unfortunate man 
had still some hope left. A counter-order would per- 
chance arrive. Or perhaps this testament would pass 
under the notice of the king, and the king would be 
touched in meeting, ainong these effusions of piety, this 
discreet j)rotestation. 



THE ATTEMPT AT ESCAPE. 285 

The hours passed. At 11 o'clock, Schack, who could 
not sleep, entered the room again. More troubled than 
Katte, he had need of strengthening himself with the 
courage of the accused. Until one o'clock he prayed 
and sung with him. He thought he saw from the color 
of the prisoner's face that flesh and blood were struggling 
with will. At the pastor's request, Katte retired about 
three o'clock, and went to sleep. He was awakened two 
hours after by the changing of sentinels. 

At the same hour. Colonel Reichmann and a captain 
entered the prince's chamber and awakened him. Fred- 
erick was ignorant of the judgment of the court-mar- 
tial, the sentence of the king, and that his friend had 
passed the night near him. We do not know exactly 
how he endured his prison life. It was said at Berlin, 
that he was sick, "that he threatened ruin," and that the 
designs of Grumbkow and Seckendorff, agreed to by the 
king, were going to be accomplished. Grumbkow, on 
the contrary, pretended that the prince was very gay and 
in good health; that, if he remained in bed, it was to 
evade the trouble of dressing himself; that he was still 
impertinent : when they told him his expenses were to be 
reduced to eight groschens, he replied that as long as he 
had to starve, he would rather be iatCiistrin than at Pots- 
dam.^'* It is probable that between these contradictory 
statements Grumbkow's has the most truth in it. Fred- 
erick did not think he was threatened with death, and he 
could not refrain from his usual custom of indulging in 
dangerous pleasantry. He sufltered principally from 
emi7ii, but his friends lightened this trouble; in spite of 
the king's interdict, they passed books to him, and Fred- 



286 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

erick found delightful even the books read in a prison 
by the light of a candle. He also had pen and paper at 
his disposal and means of communicating with outside 
parties, for on November 1st he addressed the following 
letter to his sister : 

My Dear Sister : 

They are going to make me out a heretic, after the court- 
martial is finished that is at present pending ; for it only needs, 
to pass for a heretic, not to be of the same opinion as the mas- 
ter. You can judge then, without much trouble, of the nice 
way they will treat me. The anathemas, pronounced against 
me will disturb me very little, provided that I know my gentle 
sister inscribes herself my champion. What a pleasure to me 
to know that neither bolts nor bars prevent me from show- 
ing my true friendship for you. Yes, my dear sister, there 
still remain some honest people in this half corrupted century, 
to give me means of proving my love for you. Yes, my dear 
sister, provided I know that you are happy, the prison will 
become to me an abode of happiness and contentment. Chi ha 
tempo ha vita! Let us console ourselves with that. From 
the bottom of my heart, I wish that we need have no in- 
terpreter to talk with each other, and that we could go over 
again those happy days when your principe and my princi- 
pessa kissed each other, or, to speak in plainer terms, when I 
shall have the pleasure of conversing with you myself — 
nothing can diminish my friendship for you. Adieu, 

The Prisoner.'^^^ 

Chi ha tempo ha vita. This was the secret of Fred- 
erick's patience. He had, in fact, kept his imperti- 
nence, his rather affected way of jesting, his smile, 
French fashion, but with a little stiffer lip. Now those 
were terribly serious things, that they told him, the 
night he was awakened by the colonel and captain. 
"Lord Jesus," cried he, " rather take my life!" For 
two hours, he groaned, cried, twisted his hands. He 



THE ATTEMPT AT ESCAPE. 287 

sent to ask for Katte's pardon. He begged for a delay 
in the execution; an estafette could be quickly sent to 
Wusterhausen, to take there, in exchange for Katte's 
pardon, his renunciation of the crown, his consent to 
perpetual imprisonment for himself, and even the offer 
of his own life, if the king must have it. But the 
faces of those surrounding him said, that he prayed and 
cried in vain. 

In the meanwhile Katte had received communion. 
To Schack, who had returned to him, he had told his 
last wishes; he left his clothing to the orderly of the 
major, who had assisted him, during the last night, had 
made his coffee and was ready to serve him on the scaf- 
fold ; his bible, to a corporal who had earnestly sung 
the hymn with him: "Far from my thoughts, vain 
world, begone, etc." At seven o'clock the escort of 
body guards were ready. "Is it the hour?" said the 
prisoner. "Yes." 

The door opened. Katte placed himself in the midst 
of the troopers, between the two pastors who were 
praying. He walked in an easy manner, with his hat 
under his arm, and was very calm. Outside the gate of 
the fortress, which faced the town, they turned around 
the building in order to go into a long court, which was 
between the main lodgings and the rampart washed by 
the Oder. Frederick was confined in one of the rooms 
overlooking the water. By order of the king the two 
officers conducted him to the window. As soon as he 
perceived Katte, who raised his eyes, he kissed his hand 
to him: "My dear Katte," cried he (in French), "I 
humbly ask your pardon." Katte bowed low and re- 



288 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

plied (in the same language), "that there was no reason 
why the prince should do so."^^^ When he arrived at the 
circle formed by the garrison, he heard his sentence 
read without emotion. He called near him the officers 
of the body guard, and bade them, as well as the whole 
assembly, farewell. He devoutly received the benedic- 
tion of the pastors, took off his perruque which he 
handed to Schack's orderly, and put on his head a white 
cap; he began to take off his coat and open his shirt 
wide at the neck, tranquilly doing this like a man who 
bravely "prej^ares himself for a serious event." Then 
he knelt upon the heap of sand which had been placed 
there. "Lord Jesus," he cried. The orderly wished 
to put the bandage over his eyes; he pushed it aside 
with his hand, and began again: "Lord Jesus!" 
The stroke of the sword interrupted his prayer, 

The Crown Prince fainted at the last look of the 
victim. 

THE PARDON OF THE PRIXCE. 

From the j^lace of execution Pastor Mliller went di- 
rectly to the prince, whom he believed to be dying. Mlil- 
ler tried to speak with him, but finding him so weak 
and terror-stricken, he left him. Frederick went back 
again to his window; his glance was continually directed 
towards the heap of sand, where the body of Katte had 
been left with a black cloth thrown over it. It was not 
until two o'clock that two burghers brought a hearse, in 
which they placed the remains, and took it to the 
Officer's Cemetery. The prince watched them do it. 
Miiller then returned to the prince, and their conversa- 



THE ATTEMFT AT ESCAPE. 289 

tion lasted until five o'clock. At seven he was recalled 
by Frederick. 2^^ 

The king had 2:>rescribed his task to Mliller in the letter 
he had received on the 3d of November: " I do not 
know you, but I have heard very good things of you, 
and that you are a pious and an upright pastor and 
servant of God. As you go to Clistrin on the occasion 
of the execution of Lieutenant Katte, I command you to 
go, directly after the execution, to the chamber of the 
Crown Prince, to reason with him, and represent to him 
that those who abandon God, God abandons ; and if God 
abandons and withdraws His benediction from man, he 
no longer does good but evil. 

"Let him judge himself conscientiously ; ask pardon of 
God with all his heart, for the grave sin that he has 
committed, and for having led some men astray, one of 
whom had to pay for it by forfeiting his life. If you 
find the prince amenable, you must have him fall on his 
knees with you, and also the officers who are with him, 
and ask pardon of God with contrite heart. But you 
must act in a good and prudent manner, for his head is 
full of stratagems, and you must have a care, so that all 
this will be with true repentance and a penitent heart. 
You must also represent to him, in the right way, into 
what an error he has plunged, in believing that such a 
one is predestined in this fashion, another in that, so 
that those who are predestined to evil can only do evil, 
while those who are predestined to good can only do 
good, and that nothing can be changed. 

"As I hope that his present circumstances, and the 
execution, all fresh in his mind, will have touched and 



290 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

softened his heart, I make it an affair of conscience with 
you to do all that is humanly possible, to represent well 
to the Crown Prince all the passages of Holy Scripture, 
upon Pardon^ to convince and show him clearly your 
meaning, and as he is ingenious, answer each one of his 
objections plainly, but pertinently and fully. You 
must lead him to this discourse in the right wa}-, with- 
out his perceiving it. If you find that the Crown Prince 
is content with your conversation, and that he welcomes 
your good doctrines, that they go to his heart, you must 
remain at Clistrin and go to the prince every day and 
penetrate his conscience w^ith your words in such a way 
that he will see his faults and be converted at heart to 
God. If you do not find him accessible you must leave, 
and write me ; and, if I go to Berlin you must go there 
to speak with me. But if you find him repentant you 
must write me and remain with the prince." 

We must compare this letter with the order given 
on the same day to General Lepell on the subject of 
the execution. When he had written these two docu- 
ments the king had made up his mind. Not only had 
he decided to let his son live, but he thought no 
longer about disinheriting him. He gave back to him 
the title of Crown Prince that he had evaded giving 
him before. After so much hesitation he had chosen 
the j)unishment that he was going to inflict on the 
rebel : he condemned Frederick to the agitation of 
viewing a terrible spectacle. He composed the whole 
drama himself and foresaw everything to the minutest 
detail. 

In the order to the General, he reQ:ulated the execution, 



THE ATTEMPT AT ESCAPE. 291 

the place where it was to be consummated, the position 
of the body guard, who were to remain on foot (so as 
not to hide the condemned, who must be seen from the 
windows) ; he described the way that Katte should be 
introduced into the circle by the escort, the moment that 
his sentence was to be read ; he named the magistrate 
who was to do the reading. "As soon as the death 
sentence is read, tbe pastor must say a prayer, and the 
executioner cut off the head." He said how the body 
should be exposed, and up to what hour, and to what 
cemetery the corpse should be taken by some burghers 
of a respectable standing, kiihsche Burger^ He des- 
ignated the officers who were to go to the prince before 
the execution, "to command him in my name to look at 
it with them," and who, immediately after, must go to 
seek the pastor of the body guard: "And he must speak, 
reason and pray with the prince." In the letters to the 
pastor, the king gives him the subject for his words and 
arguments, and even the tone of his prayers. 

Upon the terror of the execution still "right fresh," 
he wishes him to pour the word of God and an exhorta- 
tion to repentance. If his son is capable of being 
touched, he undoubtedly will be so at that moment. To 
the reasons which had decided the king to condemn the 
unfortunate Katte, must be added the hope of moving- 
Frederick to the very depths of his soul. The king rep- 
resented to himself the theatrical effect of the pastor 
entering the cell before the executioner had hardly time 
to wipe his sword. ^^^ 

Miiller obeyed to the letter, the king's orders. On 
this dav of the first interview, he oave Frederick Katte's 



292 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

last wishes, so as to keep his emotion alive, to "break" 
and "wring" his heart. The prince in the midst of 
tears and sobs, acknowledged that all his unhappy- 
friend had written was true. He protested with vehe- 
mence that, as for himself, from the beginning, he had 
truly repented at heart. He added, alluding to his 
repeated pleas for pardon and mercy, that the king could 
not have known it, since he had this execution take 
place under the eyes of his son, who had repented of his 
sins and was and still continued to be submissive to his 
whole will. 

The prisoner had a bad night. He had not eaten 
throughout the day and was very weak. The three per- 
sons who remained near his bedside, heard his delirium. 
On awakening he said: "The king imagines he has 
taken Katte away from me, but he is always before my 
eyes." He received the physician to whom he declared 
that he was very well ; he asked him, however, to pre- 
scribe a powder which he had been in the habit of tak- 
ing; he began then to reconcile himself with life. To 
the pastor he showed a more earnest repentance than the 
evening before. His sin, said he, appeared to him still 
greater. He regretted his effrontery during the exami- 
nation before the court-martial. If, at the beginning, 
someone had only talked sensibly with him, without 
hard threats, his thoughts would not have gone to the 
extreme that he regretted now. He thanked God and 
his father for the humility inflicted upon him, and sub- 
mitted himself to the paternal and royal will of His 
Majesty. 

The prince and pastor then took up again the conver- 



THE ATTEMPT AT ESCAPE. 293 

sation on things divine. Frederick, whom MUller 
had, as early as the evening before, reproached with 
his heresy as a Particularist, began again himself with 
the discourse upon grace and fatality. He exposed his 
doctrine, and provoked his interlocutor to contradict 
him. Milller quoted these words from St. Peter: "Not 
willing that any should perish but that all should come 
to repentance." The prince was surprised: " He had 
never seen," said he, "this passage of Scripture, which 
appeared to prove in fact that the intention of God is to 
save even the most wicked of men." Mliller invoked, 
besides, the testimonies of St. Paul, no less conclusive. 
The prince tried to defend himself by comparisons : 
"Does not the arrangement of the wheels of a watch de- 
termine the movement of these wheels? " " Certainly," 
answered the pastor, "but these wheels have no will to 
resist." "Is not the power of fire over wood necessarily 
of one kind, and has it not a unique effect? " "Yes, but, 
if part of the Avood is dipped in water, the power of the 
fire has no longer a unique effect. " Miiller took immed- 
iately the offensive: "Two men have fallen into the 
castle moat; to each one is thrown a rope. They are 
told that if they but catch hold of it, they will be saved. 
One of them does not care to take hold of the rope; if 
he is notr saved, it is through his own fault." 

While the pastor and he discussed in puerile terms 
the primordial and obscure question of our free- 
dom, the prince managed his retreat. He knew that the 
king would never pardon his persistence in heresy. He 
was not yet fully assured about his fate. From time to 
time, he w^ent to the window, and looked at the heap of 



294 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

sand, that was still there, and he begged the Governor 
to have it removed. At last, he confessed his error. 
"There is no fatality," said he, "and I, alone, am the 
cause of Katte's death and my own unhappiness." Miil- 
ler assured him that he was on the right road, in ac- 
knowledging and feeling the greatness of his fault; he 
had but to allow himself now to be conducted, through 
God's aid, to true repentance. Then the prince replied : 
" With all my heart, if there is yet grace for me, and if 
I have account to render to none but God." The pastor 
continued to speak only of God ° ' ' He has made you 
feel His anger, to force you to cry for His mercy! " But 
Frederick knew very well, that with God he could ar- 
range matters always: " I believe that," he said, "but 
I fear I will never, in my life, obtain the king's mercy." 
It is from the king that he wished to obtain pardon 
for his sins. Every time that Miiller spoke of God's 
pardon, Frederick responded with the king's pardon. 
He feared that the pastor was hiding from him a fearful 
secret; he hesitated to put the exact question that arose 
to his lips. He turned his phrases about, and sought to 
make the pastor understand his anxiety. At last, as 
Miiller was obstinately continuing his theological dis- 
courses, he risked saying : " Must I not conclude from 
your visit, that you wish to prepare me for death also? " 
Miiller finally understood him; he denied it, and took 
much trouble to get this idea out of the prince's mind : 
"It all depends upon Your Highness as to whether you 
wish to remain here or not, and for how long." Fred- 
erick, reassured a little, began to pray. When he be- 
came calmer, he asked the pastor to remain still nearer, 



THE ATTEMPT AT ESCAPE. 295 

to sleep at the Castle, if possible, so that he could see 
him as often as he liked, and converse with him 
for his edification. Miiller obtained permission to stay 
at the fortress, in an apartment above that of the prince, 
who had only to knock on the floor to have him come 
down. 

The worthy man believed in the sincerity of Fred- v 
crick's repentance and conversion. He affirmed, before 
God, to the king, that he had not been able to discover 
in the prince the slightest trace of falsehood. At the 
same time he implored the king "to let a little of his 
royal mercy shine on the prince," for he was afraid His 
Highness, "through fear and an expectation of things 
that might happen, and through the effect of persistent 
and growing sadness, would fall into a dangerous 
malady of the mind." The fourth day he received and 
read with joy the response. 

The king commanded him to stay on at Ciistrin, and 
to adjure the prince to search himself well, and to con- 
fess all the sins he had committed against God, the king, 
himself and his honor, for, "to borrow money when 
one cannot pay it, to wish to desert, this does not come 
from an honest man, but from hell— the children of the 
devil — and not from the children of God." 

"You have assured me, on your conscience, and be- 
fore your Maker," added he, " that the prince, at Ciis- 
trin, has been converted to God; that many times he has 
asked pardon of his king, seignior, and father, for all 
he has done, and that he has regretted bitterly not 
having submitted to the good wishes and will of his 
father. If now you find the prince disposed to promise 



296 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

this firmlj" before God ; if it is true that his heart has 
suffered for his sins; if it is his real intention to do 
better in the way that I direct, you can signify to him 
in my name that, verily, I cannot give him entire pardon, 
but that, through a mercy that he does not deserve, I 
will release him from the fortress and again appoint 
some people to watch over his conduct. 

'^ The town will be his prison. He cannot leave it. 
I will give him occupation from morning until evening 
in the chamber of war and domains and the govern- 
ment. He will work in economics, receive the ac- 
counts, read the acts, and take notes. But, before this 
happens, I will make him take an oath to act in all 
obedience, conformably to my will, and to do every- 
ting befitting and belonging to a faithful servitor, sub- 
ject, and son. But if he revolts or flies into a passion 
again, he will lose the succession to the crown and to 
the electorate, and even, according to circumstances, 
his life. ... I notify you to represent to the 
prince, in my name, that I know him well. Does he 
think that I do not know him? He ought to be con- 
vinced that I know his wicked heart well. 

"If this heart is not bent or changed, if it still re- 
mains the same, if he has the intention of abjuring this 
oath, he will content himself with muttering it, and he 
will not express it in a loud voice. Tell him in my name 
that I advise him, as a faithful friend, to swear in a loud 
and clear manner, and to feel himself obliged to hold to 
his oath, word for word. Here, we mean nothing to be 
in mental reserve. We understand nothing except what 
is written. If he wishes to violate or break this oath, 



THE ATTEMPT AT ESCAPE. 297 

he will have no excuse. Let him ponder it well. Let 
him constrain and change his bad heart through Divine 
assistance, for it is a question of grave importance. 

"May the Most High God give him Plis benedictioni 
And, as often through some marvelous means, some 
miraculous channels, through bitter pathways, He leads 
men to Christ's kingdom, may He bring back to His 
communion this wayward son! May He prostrate this 
impious heart I May He soften and change it, and tear 
him from Satan's clutches I May God, the all-powerful 
Father, grant this, through the mediation of the suffer- 
ings and death of our Lord Jesus Christ . . . Amen I " 

This time it was pardon, enveloped in a strong sermon. 
As soon as he received the letter, Miiller went to the 
prince's chamber. He found him reading the Bible and 
plunged in deep meditation. Frederick undoubtedly did 
not see by Muller's expression, that he had anything 
new to communicate; othewise, he would not have begun 
the discourse with the pastor upon the claims of our 
Saviour and the debt which His death caused us to con- 
tract with Him. Miiller let him say it ; he even took 
occasion in this effusion of piety, to press him to confirm 
his promises of amendment by an oath that he would 
withdraw all his suspicions and ill-will from the king. 
The prince did not see where he was leading him, nor 
how the king could give him pardon for an oath. The 
pastor finally began to explain, and spoke, this time, in 
the king's name, as he had received the order: ''Is it 
possible," cried the prince, whose eyes filled with tears. 
Miiller drew the letter from his pocket and gave it to the 
prince. Frederick read it, and saw that he was saved. 



298 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

He began by expressing his gratitude to his father; 
then he said that he knew very well what was meant by 
an oath, that there must be no mental reserve, on the 
contrary, it must be taken in the sense and spirit of the 
one who had ordered it. Of course, he would take it in 
a loud and intelligible voice. To prove that he accepted 
the proposition seriously, and wished earnestly to j^ledge 
himself, he expressed the hope that the king would order 
nothing in the formula not "paternal and acceptable" to 
himself; he begged His Majesty to communicate to him, 
in advance, the said formula, ' ' so that he would pre- 
cipitate nothing, and could prepare himself conscientious- 
ly, with sufficient reflection, to pronounce well and observe 
closely all the points of the oath." The good Mliller 
transmitted this petition to the king, commending it to 
him. 

Nothing now remained but to regulate the last formal- 
ities of setting the Crown Prince at liberty. The king 
concerted with Grumbkow and Seckendorff. Secken- 
dorff assumed the hurried air of a rescuer. To complete 
the success of his intrigue, he wished to give out the im- 
pression that the prince owed his salvation entirely to 
the intercession of the Emperor. It came not from that 
source at all. Frederick William had certainly taken 
this stand of himself. The representations coming from 
foreign countries would not have sufficed to determine 
him. When he learned from his minister at London the 
severe censure in England of his execution of Katte, he 
replied: "If there had been a hundred instead of one 
Katte like that, I would have cut the heads off them all. 
... As long as God allows me to live, I will sustain 



THE ATTEMPT AT ESCAPE. 299 

myself as a despotic Seignior, ah Herr despotique sou- 
teniren loilrde. ... The English ought to know that I 
will never tolerate a co-regent by my side." The Em- 
peror even would have had a hard time of it, if he had 
attempted to play this role. However, he did not pre- 
tend to do it, and his intervention was discreet. There 
had been sent by Seckendorff to his Court, as early as the 
2d of December, the model of a letter to be written in 
behalf of the Emperor in favor of the prince, but he did 
not wish to precipitate things. He had had the satis- 
faction of being supplicated by his vanquished enemy 
the queen, who said to him, ' ' That the Emperor alone 
could save her son ; " he had responded that it ' 'was im- 
possible to meddle in the affairs of the royal house 
while the king did not authorize it,' 'His Majesty having 
no need of foreign aid "to procure his domestic peace." 
When he received the Imperial letter, he wrote to 
Vienna that he would keep it until the moment he was 
sure that the king wished to proclaim pardon. He 
awaited, in fact, the permission of the king to remit to 
him the autograph missive of his sovereign. It is true 
that the king declared soon afterward that his son owed 
his pardon to the Emperor. "For the pardon of the 
Crown Prince," wrote he to his minister at Vienna, "we 
have, above all, considered the intercession in his favor 
of His Imperial Roman Majesty." But he wrote also to 
his minister at St. Petersburg : ' ' For the pardon of the 
Crown Prince we have considered, above all, the inter- 
cession in his favor of His Imperial Russian Majesty." 
Frederick the Great saved by the father of Maria The- 
resa, would be a history worthy to relegate to legendary 



300 FREDEEICK THE GREAT. 

lore ; but it suited the King of Prussia, who was very 
rauch irritated then against France and England, to recall 
his imperialistic fervor, to make his son believe that he 
owed to Austria his liberty and the preservation of his 
rights to the Crown. ^^^ 

He then requested Seckendorff to regulate himself, the 
conditions of the pardon of the prince and his release. 
It was Seckendorif who proposed to the king to exact the 
solemn oath from the prince, and put him in semi-liberty 
in the town of Clistrin, obliging him to work in the 
chamber of domains or administration. ^^^ He had asked 
besides to be sent to Ciistrin with the commissioners 
designated to receive the oath. He thought that nothing 
would serve better to make the prince know "that the 
Emperor, in true friendship for His Royal Majesty, had 
interceded for him:" he wished to read him the imperial 
letter, and make him understand that, through regard 
for His Imperial Majesty, the king "preferred pardon 
to justice." But Frederick William would not permit a 
stranger to say the last word in so important an affair. 
It was Grumbkow whom he sent, with five other gene- 
rals, to Clistrin, where they arrived on the 15th of 
November. 

The day following, Grumbkow had a long conversa- 
tion with the prince. What passed, we do not know. 
Grumbkow was the man to do just the necessary thing; 
to laugh or cry with the prince, to console or advise him, 
to make him wrong on certain points and right on others. 
He did not fail to explain his own conduct, how 
and why he had done what he did, how much it had cost 
him to thwart the projects of His Highness. He certainly 



THE ATTEMPT AT ESCAPE. 301 

promised him his future aid and devotion. The j^rince 
was a man to understand everything, even the most 
subtle suggestions. They had need of each other, and 
their consciences were tractable to the movements of 
their interests ; they came to an understanding. To show 
his gratitude to this new ally, the prince made him a 
present, with tears and sobs, of the last will or testament 
of Katte, which will, it seems to me, he ought to have 
kept until the day of his death. 

The 17th of November, the prince took, unquestion- 
ably in a loud and intelligible voice, the oath "to obey 
strictly the orders of the king, to do in all things that 
which devolved upon and befitted a faithful servitor, 
subject and son." He assented, in advance, should he 
fall again into his old errors, to the loss of his hereditary 
rights. He was then given his liberty, with the town 
for his prison. The Governor General returned his 
sword, but without the sword-hanger or sabretash of an 
officer ; for the king's pardon did not go so far as to re- 
instate his son in the army. The post-guards could not 
come out and present arms as he passed ; the military 
Avere forbidden to salute him. Frederick, sensitive to 
these marks of indignity, addressed to his father imme- 
diately a petition to give him back his soldier's garb. 
The king answered that a deserter lost the right to wear 
uniform, and added: "It is not necessary that all 
men have the same calling ; some should work as sol- 
diers ; and others must apply themselves to learning and 
such like things." 

Then he had him listen to these serious and true royal 
words. "It is necessary now," said he, "that the prince 



302 * FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

learn, by taking part in affairs, that no State can exist 
without economy and a good constitution. The welfare 
of a country exacts that the prince himself should be a 
good economist and administrator; otherwise the country 
remains at the disposition of favorites and prime min- 
isters, who profit by it and put everything to confusion. 
. . . The Crown Prince ought to see, by examples that 
are not wanting, that most of the princes pay no atten- 
tion to the economy of the household, and that, while 
they have the finest countries in the world, they do not 
know how to make use of them, but, on the contrary, 
run into debt and ruin themselves. " ^^^ 

Thus ended the prison life of the Crown Prince of 
Prussia. In the strife between the father and the son 
both were greatly at fault ; the father, for refusing his 
son the right to live according to his nature, and smoth- 
ering in this young soul, by his odious brutality, all dis- 
position to filial piety ; the son, in deceiving his father, 
in intriguing against him, in not loving him, in provok- 
ing him to anger by the whole course of his life. Both 
suffered : the father was tortured by uneasiness, uncer- 
tainty, indecision and anger ; the son, by the sight of 
Katte's blood, and by the fear of dying ; but neither one 
nor the other had the right to be pitied. Their suffer- 
ings are not the kind that move the heart. They both 
kept, each in his own way, a superhuman coolness, the 
father in arranging the drama, the son in playing the 
role as he did. Of course, the young man cried, and 
cried and twisted his hands, and asked the Lord Jesus to 
let him die, but the following day he ordered a powder 
from his physician ; he discussed with perfect freedom, 



THE ATTEMPT AT ESCAPE. 303 

as if he took a real interest in it, the question of know- 
ing if Christ died for all men or only for the elect. 
Into his theology and metaphysics, he adroitly glided 
questions as to his own fate, interrogating the 
pastor, and insinuating his repentance, in words the 
most liable to strike the king favorably, knowing well 
that they would be repeated. He did not hesitate to 
sign the compact of reconciliation that Grumbkow 
offered him, and as token of his friendship he gave to this 
Grumbkow (one of the authors of the catastrophe), the 
last lines written by the victim. We soon hear that His 
Royal Highness is "as merry as a lark." Later Frederick 
will accuse Katte of having been maladroit. This young- 
man was ready for the hazards and perils of the life of a 
prince ; he was ready for great state affairs. 

In a letter, wherein he gave an account to Prince An- 
halt of the manner in which he had ''regulated the bad 
affair of Ciistrin," Frederick William said, speaking of 
his son: "If he becomes an honest man, it will be a 
happy thing for him, but I doubt it strongly ." ^^^ 



CHAPTER V. 

THE SECOXD EDUCATION OF THE CROWN PRINCE. THE 

FIRST SIX MONTHS IN THE CHAMBER OF ADMINISTRA- 
TION. 

On the 19th of November, 1730, the Crown Prince of 
Prussia left his prison. The next day, he was intro- 
duced into the Chamber of War and Administration at 
Clistrin. His function and work had been regulated by 
the king in an order addressed to Milnchow, the presi- 
dent, and to Hille, director of the chamber. He had 
the position of auditor, and had to sit at a small table 
"lower down," and sign the papers not on the same line 
with the councillors but "lower down." The king 
wished to keep him in modesty and humility, as beseem- 
ing a penitent not yet absolved. But this little table, on 
emerging from a prison, was equal to a seat in paradise. 
The prince tasted the joy of being sure of living, and 
the sweetness of his semi-liberty. He took part in the 
deliberations of the chamber, and entertained himself 
with it. An officer of the navigation around Ciistrin, 
believing himself to be the victim of an injustice, was 
advised to address his cause to the prince. This was the 
new auditor's first business affair. He began by saying, 
that as he was conducting himself very well, he hoped 
that the chamber would give him a small department. 
"All those of terra firraa" being already distributed, he 
laid claim to those of the sea. "Now the Oder," said 



THE SECOND EDUCATION. 305 

he, * 'empties into the Baltic Sea; the cause of the officer 
of navigation was then in his department." Upon which 
the President, von Mlinchow begun to laugh, and Direc- 
tor Hille was delighted to see that "His Highness was 
as gay as a lark. " ^-^ 

Frederick knew well that after all, he was and would 
still remain the Heir-apparent of Prussia. It did not 
escape him that his " superiors " knew it also. Presi- 
dent Mlinchow was a brave man, who had proved in the 
prison of Ciistrin, his good sentiments, in a time when 
he risked his head by so doing. Director Hille, who 
considered himself the prince's tutor in economy and 
morals, took up his role seriously, but Frederick 
admired in him an extended learning and a profound 
knowledge of French literature, and he took kindly to 
him for having "sensibility " and intellect. He received 
strict lessons from Hille, but they were Avell given, and 
the young man pardoned everything for e8pr%t\ when 
they made him laugh at his own expense, he was dis- 
armed, because he had laughed. After all, with this 
president, and this director, existence was bearable in 
the chamber of administration. At his dwelling, 
Frederick lived with his Marshal of the Court, Von 
Wolden, and two young nobles attached to the cham- 
ber, Yon Natzmer and Von Rohwedell. The Marshal 
had the best intentions in the world. By order of the 
king, he addressed to him frequent reports but they were 
written in a way to mollify, more and more, the father's 
frame of mind in regard to his son. He hoped that the 
prince, "my subordinate," as he said, would give satis- 
faction by his good conduct and would not make him 



306 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

tell falsehoods. ^^* As for the two young nobles they could 
not be such terrible guardians. More even than Miin- 
chow and Hille, they thought of the future. Frederick 
entertained them with his hopes and plans ; with them, 
without precaution, he assumed his position as Heir-ap- 
parent. 

However, the gaiety of the lark did not continue. 
The secret of the prince's good humor was, that he 
hoped the regime in which they had placed him would 
not last a long time. A month had hardly passed by, 
ere Hille communicated his fears to Grumbkow; we 
must keep up the prince's hojje, "if only in a very small 
way; otherwise, I do not know what will happen." But 
the king from afar, made him feel that he was not yet 
pardoned; that he still distrusted him. 

He read in one of Wolden's reports, that his son per- 
sisted in his doctrines of predestination. Quickly, he 
expedites a courier to Clistrin, with a letter, which 
makes poor Wolden regret his imprudence. "The 
scoundrel must give up his false predestination. If he 
wants to go to the devil, let him go! I have nothing 
with which to reproach myself ! . . . However, you 
must all three, never relax a moment reproaching him 
with his error, taking your arguments from the Holy 
Scripture. . . . You finally will learn in time to 
know this saint better and better. You will see that 
there is nothing good in him, but his tongue. Oh! 
As to the tongue, there is no fault to find with it." 
Then pouring out, as was his custom, all his bad humor, 
he taunted his son with his appearance and manners. 
The rascal is never shaved; when this knave walks it is in 



THE SECOND EDUCATION. 307 

cadence^ making a coupe or perhaps a step of passe-pied, 
or a co7itre-teinp)s. He walks on the tips of his toes. He 
stoops over when he walks. . . . He never looks an 
honest man in the face. " ^^^ The succeeding letters became 
more and more furious. The king wanted to know who 
had preached this satanic doctrine to his' son. He estab- 
lished at Berlin a tribunal of inquisition, before which 
he made all those appear whom he suspected. The 
prince, summoned to deliver the names, sent a list of 
books wherein he had found reasons for his faith. "The 
books have neither feet nor wings," replied the king. 
"Some one brought them. Who? Who?" As the 
prince did not wish to betray anyone, the king, who had 
learned that he was sick, trusted he would die without 
daring to hope: "He is predestined; so be it. If there 
is anything good in him, he will die ; but there is no 
danger of his dying. Ill weeds grow apace." 

On the receipt of these letters, the household of Cils- 
trin was thrown into consternation. ' ' I am at my wits 
end," wrote Hille: " Since submission u]3 to the small- 
est detail is no use, I might just as well do the contrary 
and perish with honor," said the prince. However, he 
thought better of it. Hille convinced him that the thesis 
upon which predestination was established, was in a mere 
play of words. After all, concluded Frederick, "it is 
not worth martyrdom." He wrote then to his father 
that he renounced his doctrine, and was persuaded that 
he had been deceived by philosophical and political argu- 
ments, happy besides to abjure it, since it was displeas- 
ing to him.^-*^ 

To evade the return of storms like these, Wolden, 



308 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

Munchow and Hille, had recourse to the protection of 
Grumbkow, whose influence was stronger than ever. 
The clever man wished while serving the king, to 
manage the prince. He sent instructions and advice. 
Clistrin asked even for the model of the letter that the 
prince must write for the New Year. ' ' I recommend 
our little company to the protection of Your Excel- 
lency," said Wolden to him. Grumbkow acceded to the 
difficult task, and the "little company" returned once 
more to its tranquil life. 

Too tranquil, alas! the prince did not know how to 
occupy himself. The sittings lasted only a few hours 
in the morning; after dinner for two hours he had to 
copy documents, but even though he did this regular 
w^ork, the days would still be long. Wolden asked that 
the prince might be permitted to study some works on 
finance and administration. "Why not give him at 
once, flute and violin," replied the king? "No, he must 
have no books unless, they be the Bible, Psalm Book and 
the ' True Christianity ' of Arnd. Books teach noth- 
ing. What is now necessary, is practice. It is the 
reading of a lot of useless books that has led the 
prince to do evil. Let him study in the registers of the 
chambers, the old papers of the time of the Elector 
Frederick William, and the acts of the Margrave John 
of Clistrin." 

It is probable that Frederick did not look at these old 
papers. What was he to do then? He talked with the 
"three gentlemen." The king had permitted this 
amusement ; he had even regulated it. Tlie conversa- 
tion should turn upon the word of God, the constitution 



THE SECOND EDUCATION. 309 

of the country, manufactures, police, accounts, farm- 
rent, procedure. If the prince takes it into his head to 
speak of peace, war, or other political questions these 
gentlemen must hush him up. They certainly did not 
obey this command. The prince often talked politics 
with Natzmer, who was very glad to give him a reply, 
for he thought himself born for great affairs; but sub- 
jects were soon worn out, and the four interlocutors, 
finding nothing to say, remained silent. 

It was forbidden to change the prince's company. He 
must never dine out, never. He must always dine with 
the "three gentlemen," without extending an invitation 
to anyjone else. No music, no dancing: " He is not at 
Ciistrin to amuse himself, um sich zic divertiren.'^'^ They 
lived in this way, these four personages of our history, 
in a small plain house and with strict economy. The 
king forbade oysters, salt-water-fish, capons of Ham- 
burg and other delicacies. The allowance for the 
first month was 147 thalers and 8 groschens, out of 
which were to be paid three lackeys (22 thalers), the 
cook (7 thalers, 8 groschens), the rent (6 thalers, 8 
groschens), food (60 thalers), light and wood (20 thalers), 
shoes (20 thalers). The remainder was to cover inci- 
dental expenses. The prince had to keep his own ac- 
counts ; he did not fail in this, for the king examined 
them closely. In the accounts of the second month, 
Frederick made excuses for having paid too much for 
the butter: "there was a distemper, from which came 
the scarcity of butter, daher entstandene Raritet der 
Buter.''^ He refrained from complaining of the paternal 
parsimony. The least demand, and the most simple and 



310 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

natural care of his person became crimes. He wished, 
summer coming on, to have some suitable clothing. The 
king refused : ' ' This is neither a Brandenburg nor a 
Prussian fashion ; it comes from the French." Behold 
the state to which this prince is now reduced who was 
"well disposed toward magnificence." 

He was bored, the others were bored. Clistrin 
yawned in her confidential letters. Hille gave notice of 
the constant diminution of the prince's good humor. He 
said: "His Highness is beginning to tire of this." 
" The rest of us in the convent will die, if this kind of 
life continues " added Wolden, to whom his physician 
had just prescribed hellehorum-nigrum.'^^^ 

They were like a party of ship-wrecked people, thrown 
by the tempest on a desert island and without resources; 
they lived upon themselves, but no longer satisfied with 
doing that, the eye was continually fixed upon the silent 
horizon. Frederick and three noblemen were enclosed in 
a little town of narrow streets, its people poor and 
plain, with provincial, pedantic functionaries, and a 
mechanical military code. They could see, from the 
height of the ramparts, the Oder and the Wartha flow- 
ing by, and the extension of the plain, but the postern 
did not allow them to pass. The king forbade 
them to go farther. He only enlarged his son's prison; 
he kept him closed up, with his youth, his impatience, 
his dreams, within those walls at whose base streamed 
Katte's blood. 

However, those Cilstrin days, so long and so empty, 
counted in the life of Frederick. Will or nill he learned 
about aifairs, in the daily sittings of the chamber. He 



THE SECOND EDUCATION. 311 

saw there, detail after detail, all the economy of the roy- 
alty of Prussia: rentals, contributions, excise, mills, 
foundries, manufactures, customs, those elements of the 
financial power which produced the military power. 
Hille taught him finance and commerce. He had the tal- 
ent of making himself interesting, in enlarging upon the 
subjects he treated. One day, after a lesson upon com- 
merce, he traced rapidly the commercial history of 
Brandenburg. He told how the city of Frankfort-on-the- 
Oder had been the centre of trade, in the Middle Ages, 
when she received through Venice and Augsburg the 
merchandise of the Levant, and bonded it, so as to dis- 
tribute it, in the Marche^ in Poland, Prussia, Pomerania, 
and Mecklenburg. After the discovery of the route 
around the Cape of Good Hope, the products of the Le- 
vant came by way of the North Sea and the Baltic. 
Frankfort lost then "her country back of her," the 
whole side of the Baltic, but gained Silesia and Bohe- 
mia, which no longer received anything from Italy. 
Unfortunately, the commerce of Frankfort has been for 
a long time trammeled by the Swedes, the masters of 
Pomerania, that is to say of the mouths of the Oder. 
At present, Pomerania belongs to the king of Prussia, 
but the main branch of the Oder runs through the domin- 
ions of Austria, which possesses Silesia, and King Freder- 
ick William in lowering the customs duties on the Sile- 
sian frontier to please the Emperor, permits the mer- 
chants of this country to compete with his own subjects. 
* 'There is no hope for a good commerce in Brandenburg," 
concluded Hille, "until the Silesians are forced from their 
immediate commercial intercourse. How can tliat be 



312 FKEDERICK THE GREAT. 

done? It is a point that higher and cleverer heads than 
ours must decide. "^^^ 

In pronouncing this conclusion, Hille thought to him- 
self: a word to the wise is sufficient. And the future 
conqueror of Silesia was a good listener. It is not pos- 
sible that Frederick, in hearing this lesson, could fail to 
comprehend the great law which was involved in the 
development of the Prussian monarchy. Brandenburg, 
the heart of this monarchy, was a poor level country, 
between mountain and sea, separated from both, inter- 
sected by parallel streams, which were roads of in- 
vasion, of which they held neither the starting point nor 
the end. Oj^en from east to west, as well as from north 
to south, swept by all gales coming from Germanic Po- 
land, it would haveperished like Poland, if it had not baf- 
fled by the strength of its laws, its own weakness and the 
defects of its own constitution; if it had not been "planted 
firmly on its feet," in the justice hall of Brandenburg; 
if it had not finally gone up and down its rivers, con- 
quering mountain and sea. "Frederick," said Hille, 
"knows perfectly Aristotle's poetry, but he is ignorant 
as to whether his ancestors gained Magdeburg at cards 
or some other way." His new master taught him the 
use of conquests, and that they were, for Prussia, the 
only means of life. 

I imagine, however, at this date, during the first 
months of his sojourn at Clistrin, he did not take a real 
interest in economy. He was a docile auditor, because 
he had a wish to rise from this "little seat," to leave the 
city, to close his account book of household expenses and 
go away. In order to do this he must flatter the paternal 



THE SECOND EDUCATION. 313 

mania. He gave himself the air of being a good econo- 
mist. Wolden affirmed that at the end of four months 
the prince knew ''all that could be learned of economy 
by theory." He defied President Miinchow to make '' a 
better A)ischlag than our illustrious auscultator ;''^ --^ but 
the marshal of the court was as anxious as his pupil to 
"leave the galleys." Hille declared that the prince had 
composed, all alone, a statement sent to the king "on 
the subject of the imj^rovement of flax-husbandry," but 
Hille made the most of his pupil's attainments, and he 
certainly aided Frederick " to do his task," as the school 
boys say, if he did not do it entirely. The king was not 
deceived. "You very much astonish me," wrote he; 
"do you imagine that I am going to believe that the 
prince is the author of such matter I I know well 
enough what is in him. Besides, this does not please me 
at all for him to begin to form projects. I have told you 
that I want him instructed solidly. I do not wish to 
hear of empty formulas. One has no need of a master 
to manufacture wind."-^*^ 

"What is in him," is that the prince learns and com- 
prehends quickly, but wishes to make believe that his 
apprenticeship is finished. The Ciistrin people seek 
every pretext to give themselves air. When the princess 
Wilhelmina is at last betrothed, Wolden asks that the 
prince may be invited to witness the marriage of his 
sister. " Refused," wrote the king on the margin ; "a 
man under arrest should be kept close." Besides, he 
knew well, said he to Grumbkow. that the prince was 
as happy as a king to be over there without his father. 
He wished him to lead a quiet, retired life. " If I had 



314 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

done what lie has done, I would be ashamed to live, and 
I would not allow myself to be seen by any one. He 
must obey my will, get out of his head those French and 
English mannerisms, and only think like a Prussian, be 
faithful to his seignior and father, have a German heart, 
get out of his mind that damnable idea of a petit-maitre 
French fashion, call on the grace of God earnestly, have 
God always before his eyes, and then God will arrange 
things for his welfare, both in this world and the next." 
Again Wolden laments "not seeing the end of this 
drudgery." He hoped that the king would have his son 
at the grand review in the spring, but the time arrived 
and Frederick was not called. He redoubled his entrea- 
ties to Grumbkow, who thought that the next journey of 
the king through Prussia would be a good opportunity 
to ask for an interview. On this advice Wolden im- 
plored for the prince the favor of going to "kiss the 
hem of the king's garment." The king answered: 
"Must remain at Ciistrin. I will know the moment this 
wicked heart will be corrected for good, without hypoc- 
risy." At last one day, Wolden received an order from 
the king to announce to "his subordinate" an approach- 
ing paternal visit; he added, "As soon as I look him 
straight in the eyes, I can tell whether he has improved 
or not. "2^^ 

THE ROYAL VISIT. 

Frederick William had chosen for the date of meeting 
again, his own birth-day, August 15th.^^^ On arriving at 
Custrin, he went immediately to the Governor's house, 
whence he sent for his son. The prince threw him- 



THE SECOND EDUCATION. 315 

self at the king's feet, who commanded him to rise, and 
then addressed a discourse to him. 

It was a very strange one. First, reproaches upon 
the "impious project" ; a solemn tone : ''I have tried 
everything in the world, both kindness and harshness, to 
make you a man of honor " ; in a more familiar tone : 
<' When a young man commits foolish acts, makes love 
to women, etc., he may be pardoned for these youthful 
faults." Then, with anger : "But to do with premed- 
itation, such impious things, this is unpardonable!" 
And with threats : "Listen my boy, even if thou wert 
sixty or seventy years old, thou couldst not order me. I 
have, up to the present moment, sustained myself against 
the world, and I know how to bring thee to reason!" 
An interlude of comedy : the miserly father reproaches 
the prodigal son for having run into debt, when he knew 
so well that he could not pay, and for not having ac- 
knowledged the bills of his usurers. But the king ap- 
pears again : " You have never had confidence in me; 
I who am doing everything for the aggrandizement of 
the House, the army and finance, and who am work- 
ing for you ; for this will be for you, all this, if you 
show yourself worthy of it! " 

In the meanwhile what was Frederick doing? Did he 
look his father straight in the eyes, as he wished him to 
do? Suddenly, the father reproached him, for all his 
efforts to gain his friendship — vain efforts. At these 
words Frederick burst into tears and fell on his knees. 
The king possessed with the thoughts of the "impious 
project," pressed the culprit on : " Let us see ... so 
it was to England that you wished to go." On receiv- 



316 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

ing the answer iii the affirmative, he said these terrible 
words: ''Well now! listen to what would have been 
the sequel to this. Your mother would have fallen into 
the greatest trouble ; for I should have suspected her of 
being your accomplice. I would have placed your sister 
for the remainder of her life, where she could never again 
see the sun or moon. I would have entered Hanover 
with my army, and burned and sacked the country, and 
had it been necessary would have sacrificed my life, my 
country and my people. Behold what would have been 
the result of your wicked conduct. To-day, I should 
like to employ you in both military and civil commis- 
sions. But how dare I, after such an action, present 
you to my officers and servitors? You have but one 
way of raising yourself up again ; that is, by repairing 
your fault, at the price of your blood." 

For the third time Frederick fell on his knees. Then, 
the father, always with this fixed idea: "Didst thou 
corrupt Katte or Katte thou? " " I tempted him." "Ah! 
At last! I am pleased to know that you have told the 
truth once!" Here, a moment of relaxation, and this 
irony : " How do you like Clistrin? Have you still as 
much aversion for Wusterhausen, and your 'shroud' as 
you called it? I know why my society does not please 
you. It is true, I know nothing about French manners; 
1 do not know how to make bojis mots, nor have I the 
manners of a 2:>etit-maUre ... I am a German prince! 
Such as I am, will I live and die." And then he began 
again with his old grievances. Every time he dis- 
tinguished a person, Fritz slighted him, looked con- 
temptuously on the favored one. An officer was arrested, 



THE SECOND EDUCATION. 317 

Fritz sympathized with him. A fine some body in truth 
was this Fritz! A great person! It was really worth one's 
while to make so much ado over him! To-day, no one 
throughout Prussia^ nor at Berlin was occupied about 
him. It was not known whether he was in the world or 
not. If such or such a one, coming from Ciistrin, had not 
related that they had seen him play at foot-ball with 
his hair dressed in the French fashion (in a bag), people 
would not know whether he was living or dead. 

Then came the question of religion. The king preach- 
ing against predestination, points out to his son "the 
horrible consequences of that doctrine which makes God 
the author of sin, and denies that Christ died for all 
men." But the prince hastens to declare his adhesion "to 
the Christian and orthodox doctrine of His Majesty." 
Paternally, gently, his father adjures him to distrust 
these unholy beliefs. If he meets any one who excites 
him against his duties, against God, the king and his 
country, he must fall upon his knees and pray earnestly 
to his Maker to deliver him, through the intervention of 
His Holy Spirit, from these bad thoughts and lead him to 
mend his ways. "And if you put your whole heart in 
it, Jesus, who wishes all men to be saved, will grant your 
prayer." At last, the king pronounced pardon: "I 
forgive you all that has passed with the hope of your 
better future conduct." Frederick, at these words, burst 
into tears again, and kissed his father's feet. 

The king went into another room. Frederick followed 
him. They were speaking cf His Majesty's birth-day. 
The prince dared not present his best wishes, but fell 
on his knees. The king raised him in his arms. The 



318 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

terrible visit ended, the king went out and re-entered 
his carriage. Before the assembled crowd, Fritz kissed 
his father's feet again ; before the crowd, the father em- 
braced his son. 

THE NEW EEGIME OF LIFE. 

A few days after, Frederick William, "in order that 
his son should feel a little of paternal and royal pardon," 
prescribed for him a new regime of life. Three" times a 
week, in the morning, the prince was to go to the cham- 
ber of war and administration, where his seat was no 
longer low but high, by the side of the President; but 
he was to sit on the left of the king's place, which was 
empty. The remainder of the time was at his disj^osal. 
He could leave the town, on condition that he notified 
the Governor each time, to visit the domains of which 
a list was given. The present thing to do, was to 
learn by practice, what he already knew by theory, of 
economy. Some member of the chamber would always 
accompany him, to explain the cultivation of a domain; 
how to work it, fertilize it, and sow the seed ; how to 
brew, and all the details of a brewery, from the prepara- 
tion of the malt to the casking of the beer. Above all 
things, they must reason with him, make him understand 
why such or such a thing is done in such or such a way, 
and if there is room for it to be done in a different and 
better way; show him how farmers are able to pay their 
farm rent and make money out of it besides. Wolden 
must always be with him on these little trips. He must 
have a care that the prince })uts questions about these 
things "himself," about everything he sees, and in- 



THE SECOND EDUCATION. 319 

forms '^ himself well upon, every detail." These expe- 
ditions, be it understood, are no pretext for pleasure 
parties. The employe of the domain, who receives 
the prince, will lay covers for five only, at eight 
groschens per person. ^^^ 

Besides this, the king desired Wolden "to give him a 
pleasure from time to time," such as an excursion on the 
river, hunting and other things permissible, but he must 
teach the prince to use his own hands and load his gun 
"himself." The prince could have the right to invite two 
guests at each repast, and dine out twice a week, but no 
woman must be invited. One of the "three" must al- 
ways accompany him, sleep by his side, and prevent him 
from speaking to anyone alone, above all to any girl or 
woman. French books, German "laical " books, music, 
the play or the dance were interdicted, as before, for 
Wolden must teach his subordinate "solid things." Of 
course, the prince must thank God fervently for having 
changed, through His mercy, his bad heart, and for hav- 
ing led him back to Jesus Christ. Continue to invoke 
His 230werful aid, and for this purpose they must have 
morning and evening prayer with hymns, and a chapter 
in the Bible read with befitting thankfulness and de- 
votion. ^^* 

The King of Prussia was severe even in his pardons; 
the exiles of Ciistrin had hoped for better things, but 
were resigned. They had taken a step towards liberty. 
It was much for the king to pronounce the word of par- 
don, which never fell readily from his lips. "I have be- 
lieved, up to this time," said the prince to Hille, "that 
my father had not the least sentiment of love for me. 



320 FREDEKICK THE GREAT. 

I am now convinced that lie is . . . . finally to 
sever this reconciliation which is to be for all time, the 
devil himself will have to interfere . . ."^^^ To keej) 
the devil from meddling, Grumbkow, continued his good 
offices. He also wrote his little instructions for the Ciis- 
trin people. 

The clever man knew wonderfully well "the slijDpery 
dangerous ground," where he had maneuvered for so long 
a time without falling. He recommended, first of all, re- 
ligion, "that source upon which depends all happiness 
in life and interior tranquillity." Towards the king, he 
advised " an even, natural and respectful conduct." The 
prince must always give to the king the title of Majesty. In 
his conversations with his father, he must answer ques- 
tions precisely, never vary, give his advice when asked; 
he will have need, if he foresees that this advice does not 
conform to the paternal ideas, of always using this ex- 
pression : "If Your Majesty orders me to do so, and if 
I must say what I think, it is such or such a thing, but 
I can nevertheless be very much deceived in the matter 
and my little experience can easily err." Particularly, 
no spirit of raillery, nor expressions of jest, even 
though it refer to the lowest domestic. Neither must 
there be a reserved, gloomy, austere air. The king de- 
tests raillery, but likes a pleasant manner. 

In all that the prince does in the king's presence, he 
must always affect to take pleasure in it, whether he 
does or not. "It is very important that the prince 
should appear to take more pleasure in the society of the 
generals and officers of the king than in all others: a 
gracious smile or look to one ol" the civil rank will be 



THE SECOND EDUCATION. 321 

enough." Avoid those who have the misfortune to dis- 
please the king ; do not show them too much compas- 
sion, do not imitate the conduct of those spoken in Sec- 
ond Samuel, 15th chapter, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 verses. Take 
care not to show outwardly a preference for the queen, 
"for the suspicions that have been aroused on this account 
have been the cause of much sorrow to the illustrious 
mother and well-beloved son. The incomparable Crown 
Princess has the right, in a thousand ways to the affec- 
tion, confidence and friendship of her brother, but in the 
beginning, it must be limited." And finally much pru- 
dence must be shown in intercourse with foreign min- 
isters, preferring those whose interests are the same as 
the king's, and whom His Majesty favors. As for af- 
fairs, whether they be military, political or domestic, 
do not mix with them on any account, either directly or 
indirectly; do not show the least curiosity. If His 
Royal Highness is anxious to know anything, let him 
address himself to those people in whom he can trust, 
who have the king's confidence, as well as some justice 
and honor. 

For the rest, Grumbkow trusts, in order to supply all 
that is lacking in his counsels, in the sagacity and dis- 
crimination of His Highness. He gives a last advice. 
When the prince comes to Berlin, let him request the 
king to assemble in an apartment, the ministers and 
generals. Then let him declare to them, in a little dis- 
course, his repentance for having displeased his father, 
and his desire to wipe out this fault with his blood, when 
an opportunity offers, wherein the glory and the arms of 
the king are interested; the oath at Clistrin might be 



322 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

supposed to be forced; he wished to renew and confirm 
it. It could be terminated by raising two fingers and 
saying: *'I, Frederick of Prussia, swear to the all- 
poAverful God, tliat I will remain faithful to my king, 
seignior and father unto death. If I tell the truth, mav 
God through Jesus Christ, aid me. Amen." 

In drawing to a close, Grumbkow praised the disin- 
terestedness of the prince's friends. He asked no othor 
favor of the prince than to believe him to be his and the 
king's faithful servitor, and not to give ear to the ugly 
reports which had been circulated about him. "Now the 
only thing left for me to do," said the honest man, " is 
to put my trust in God. In te, Domine\ speravi^ non 
confundar in mternumy^'^'^ 

Frederick was, in fact, endowed with " enough intel- 
ligence and discernment " to take pleasure in reading 
these suggestions of his father's courtier, who aspired 
to become his, also. He hated Grumbkow. He counted 
well— on becoming the master — upon confounding, in 
time, this man who flattered hiinself that he would not 
be confounded in eternity. But he resolved to be agree- 
able to his "dear general," as well as to all others 
whose bad offices he dreaded. 

He was admirably docile, and appeared contented 
with the permitted pleasures, but he added to them. It 
is impossible that his " superiors " could have refused 
him "laical" books. ^" Frederick could not keep from 
reading; he, above all others, who when but a child, 
arose in the night to devour romances by the light of a 
lamp hidden in a chimney. We do not know much 
about his intellectual history during the Ciistrin days ; 



THE SECOND EDUCATION. 323 

his daily companions were very careful to keep it out of 
their reports. A few confidential messages in the letters 
from Hille to Grumbkow, and from Grumbkow to Seck- 
endorff, give us the information, however, that he con- 
tinued to eat forbidden fruit. He was always " Freder- 
ick the Philosopher." His obstinacy in the doctrine of 
predestination, and his dangerous backsliding all came 
from philosophy: this dogma interested him because it 
enveloped the great ^philosophical question that occupied 
his whole life, — that of human freedom. He discussed 
it with Hille as he had done with Mliller in the prison, 
as he will do later with Voltaire. It was one of the 
noble pleasures of this young man to reason, discourse 
and argue upon these profound questions. He already 
thought that he was a "moralist." Science solicited 
also his intelligence; he was curious about the great 
problems and the answers that philosophy then sought to 
give to them. "I have become," said he, "philosoph- 
ical and mechanical. "^^^ Again, he said: " I am a musi- 
cian." But above all, he believed himself to be a "great 
poet." He knew verbatim the "Art of Poetry," of Ar- 
istotle; that is to say, the admirable treatise on the 
ways of finding, through the mind, the elegant expres- 
sions in language of the human passions. Odes, satires, 
epigrams, idyls, epics, tragedies, he knew the rules 
of all, by the translation of Aristotle, and certainly by 
Boileau also, for whom he confessed later his admira- 
tion. But he was not contented to merely admire these 
masters : he tried to imitate them and applied himself 
so well to the work that "he bit his nails to the quick." 
Hille could not refuse to listen to his poetry. He makes 



324 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

game of the young poetic aspirant by reminding liim of 
the scene of the sonnet in the "Misanthrope." "Ah! 
those beautiful verses of Moliere," cried the prince. But 
he was not discouraged, and he continued to compose 
verses, like the following, for example, which he ad- 
dressed to Grumbkow: 

CONSEIL A MOY-MEME. 

suR l'air: Badiner. 

Parmi les tristes circonstances 
Souffrez avec patience, 
Jamais n' allez outre cela. 
E-aissonnez, mais restez-en la. 

Ne donnez point dans la tristesse, 
Fuyez surtout la paresse; 
En bon train alors vous voila. 
Raisonnez, mais restez-en la. 

Faites bien des chansonettes, 
Car ce seront pour vous des fetes, 
Badinez avec tout cela. 
Raisonnez, mais restez-en la. 

La chambre et les commissaires 
Qui font le metier des corsaires, 
Vous pourrez avec tout ceux-la 
Raisonnez, mais restez-en la. 

Ne faites a personne de querelle, 
Restez a vos amis fidelle, 
Et pour le reste, Ion, Ian, la 
Raisonnez, mais, restez-en la. 

Donnez tout le respect au Maitre, 
Gardez-vous toujours des traitre 
Et faites tout pour ce but-lil 
Raisonnez, mais restez-en la. 



THE SECOND EDUCATION. 325 

Ennuyez-vous bien pour complaire 
Et f aites toutes vos affaires 
Et Boyez content, Ion, Ian, la 
Raissonnez, mais restez-en la. 

Reconnaissez bien les services 
D'un Ministre les bons offices, 
Aimez-le toujours pour cela, 
Raisonnez, mais restez-en la. 

ADVICE TO MYSELF. 
SUNG TO THE AIR : Badiner. 

In all the sad circumstances of life, suffer with patience ; never over-step 
this bound. Reflect, but go no farther. 

Yield not to sorrow, fly above all things from laziness ; behold yourself 
then in excellent spirits. Reflect, but go no farther. 

Compose snatches of song, for this will afford you pleasure ; have some 
sport with it. Reflect, but go no farther. 

The Administration and the Commissariats carry on the trade of Cor- 
sairs ; upon all this you may be able to reflect, but go no farther. 

Do not quarrel with anyone ; remain true to your friends, and as for the 
rest, la, la, la. Reflect, but go no farther. 

Give due respect to the Master. Always be on your guard against trait- 
ors and do everything with this object in view. Reflect, but go no farther. 

Incommode yourself to please others and attend to your own affairs, 
and be contented, la, la, la. Reflect, but go no farther. 

Be very grateful for favors given, and for the good services of a Minis- 
ter. Love bim always for them. Reflect, but go no farther. 

Hille, whose opinion the prince asked upon this selec- 
tion, responded that these verses were "good for a 
prince, but would not be worth much had they been 
composed by a private individual." This is true, but 
the young man who, in the midst of emiul, can divert 
himself with a song to the air of " Badmei\''^ will be 
the man who, in reverses and on the eve of calamities, 
will seek consolation in the delights of philosophy and 
poetry. 



326 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

V Frederick had the opportunity at CUstrin of trying a 
few love verses. A few days after his father's visit he 
dined, for the first time, at Tamsel, a short distance 
from the town, at the home of Colonel von Wreech. 
The place was very pretty; a slight outline of hills 
sheltered one side of it; then opened the endless 
plain, watered by the Wartha, a sluggish stream, 
which joined the Oder, likewise a slow stream, a 
short distance farther on; a real Holland landscape 
both in sky and water. The house was also beau- 
tiful. It had been built by Field-Marshal von Schon- 
ing, a Brandenburg hero of the days of the Great 
Elector, who made himself illustrious by fighting 
the infidels under the walls of Ofen. He had left a 
legend. The peasants of Tamsel relate that he set out 
to fight the Turks at the head of a forest of pines; when 
he arrived before Ofen, he changed his trees into giant 
soldiers, who took the assaulted place. Schoning was 
for that time and that country a great lord. It was a 
real castle that he had built, with high windows facing 
the park, where trees covered the incline of a knoll. He 
had had the apartments panelled and ornamented in 
relief by Greek workmen whom he brought back with 
him from his oriental campaign. The stair-case and the 
ancestral hall inlaid with wood, which still exist, gave a 
grand air to the building. This was something to 
please Frederick, coming from the plain little house at 
Ciistrin, for he loved elegance and rich surroundings. 
But the pearl of the place was, the granddaughter of the 
legendary field-marshal, Madame von Wreech. ^^^ 

She was very much younger than her husband. A 



THE SECOND EDUCATION. 327 

blonde, with "a lily and rose complexion," slie was 
graceful and intelligent, and something of a coquette. 
The joy, the pride, at receiving a Crown Prince, who 
had had such a terrible adventure and was yet so young, 
made her still more amiable. To be brief, her twenty- 
three years quickly harmonized with Frederick's eighteen 
years. After a few days, the prince obtained permission 
to say: "My cousin," instead of: "Madame." He 
wrote, at first, in prose, but he met on the banks of the 
Oder the muse Urania, who reproached him for not 
praising the one he loved in verse. You must, said she 
to him, be very heartless and very German. He began 
then to rhyme, alas! 

Permettez moi, Madame, en vous offrant ces lignes, 
Que je vous fasse part de cette verite, 
Depuis que je vous vols, j'ai ete agite, 
Vous etes un objet qui en etes bien digne! 

These verses are the worst that the muse dictated to the 
prince, but the others are not much better. The young 
poet was not master of his style; he was not sure of his 
language. His mythology, his Apollo and Muses, are 
lost in Brandenburg, like the Greek temples, the Italian 
porticos, and the statues after the antique, that one sees 
in the parks surrounding the German chateaux, and 
which seem to be cold, and exiled from the south, under 
these northern clouds. If any real sentimentality is in 
it, I cannot see it. 

To Frederick's first poetic declaration, the lady re- 
sponds in the same manner, but with a pretty little ma- 
licious intent : 

C'est toute'ma maison qui y a concouru .... 
(It is all my household that has aspired, etc.) 



328 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

All the household — that means the Colonel himself. 
Nothing proves that she ever had a secret from Von 
Wreech; the rej)orts spread at Ciistrin and Berlin, when 
she became enceinte, seem mere calumny. She took 
pleasure in this badinage; she was flattered by it, noth- 
ing more. Did the prince ask for more? There is in 
this maker of love sonnets of eighteen years a little too 
much of the literati. Even his writings in prose are of 
a young man of letters, who foresees the publisher. 

Nevertheless, he had for the cousin some pretty senti- 
mentality ; he admired her beauty, majestic carriage, 
manners, her whole style, which outshone even prin- 
cesses. He loved her because she was graceful and had in- 
telligence; he had respect for this young wife, and if he had 
committed any "imprudence" in her presence, he begged 
humbly to be forgiven. In short, he passed happy days 
at Tamsel, and it gave him some pleasant imj^ressions, 
the only ones of the kind that he ever tasted in his life. 
It was a fete for him to return to the "Island of Calyp- 
so,'' as Wolden called the park surrounded by the 
Wartha. When he left Ciistrin, he sent his picture to 
the "cousin," with a letter, wherein he expressed the 
desire that she would deign to look from time to time on 
his image, and think : "He is a good enough boy, but 
he tires me, for he loves me too much, and often angers 
me with his inconvenient affection."' There is a grace 
and a little air of melancholy in this farewell. Tamsel 
is an oasis in the life of a prematurely dead heart.-" 

Frederick composed prose, too, and very prosaic it 
was, particularly that addressed to the king. He gave 
an account of his visits to the Domains. Economy is 



THE SECOND EDUCATION. 329 

the principal subject of the correspondence, upon which 
he enlarges many details, that happen there by chance, 
but he chose them with an exquisite art, so as to com- 
pose the physiognomy of a son after the father's own 
heart. 

Three days after the visit to Ciistrin, he thanked the 
king for the favors that had been given him; he confessed 
his faults again; he acknowledged himself more culpable 
than his father supposed him to be, and revealed at last 
the secret engagement he had made w-ith the Queen 
of* England to marry none but an English princess. 
Then he earnestly requested to return to the army, not 
"out of flattery," but from his very heart: "Do what- 
ever you wish with me in the world; I will be con- 
tent w4th everything ; I shall be delighted if I can 
only become a soldier once more." If he served and 
w^ished to serve his father, "it was through love and 
not duty."^^^ He applied himself to economy and to 
"household accounts." He had visited the Domain 
of Wollup, whence formerly, the king only drew 
1,600 thalers and which then brought in 2,200, an 
excellent revenue. However, it is possible to make 
a "number of improvements," and to obtain, by dry- 
ing up the marshes, an increased value of 1,000 
thalers, for it is good wheat ground. ^^^ At Carzig, the 
soil is not so good as at Wollup; there is much sand 
and in some places lime. A forest on this domain has 
been burned. This is to be cleared ; if they waited 
for the wood to grow^ again, they would have to wait 
thirty years for the revenue. The intendant thinks it 
would be better to establish a metairie (small farm) 



330 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

there: the prince is of this opinion; he estimates that 
the operation would bring in a revenue of some hundreds 
of thalers. He visited the sheep fold and stable which 
were in a very good condition. 2** At Lebus the crops 
were sown ; the weather was fine for tilling the soil. 
The prince had seen a big fellow destined for one of the 
king's regiments, and while looking at him, his heart 
bled. The king had sent him a pious book; he thanked 
him for it and recognized, in all submission, the good and 
holy intentions of his father. ^^^ He had made the plan, 
statement and contract for the farm of Carzig; they 
could only grow rye and barley there, but the fields 
which they could work would yield ten per cent. At 
Himmelstadt, the out-houses were in a very bad state; 
the brewery was falling in ruins. An abandoned church 
near by could be transformed into one at very little ex- 
pense. The barns should be moved nearer ; they are 
three hundred steps away ; it is too far and impossible 
to watch over the cattle. The prince was to return 
to Wollup to gain some instruction from the intendant, 
who was very knowing in these things, and make 
some ' 'solid improvements." ^^'^ In the meantime, he speaks 
of the hunt, where he regrets being still awkward, for 
he missed some ducks and a stag. 

Even the Marionettes, that he detested, interested 
him. He is too perfect. The father reading these let- 
ters could not believe his eyes; he did not wish to be- 
lieve them. He answered in a friendly tone, addressing 
him in the old familiar way as " My dear son." He con- 
gratulated him upon learning economy by theory and 
practice. He discussed the propositions with the prince, 



THE SECOND EDUCATION. 331 

recommending him, ' ' to observe minutely everything 
himself, to get at the bottom of things, to go into detail, 
in das Detail gehenf but in the Fritz of Clistrin, he al- 
ways saw the Fritz of other times. " You tell me that 
you wish to become a soldier again, I think this does 
not come from your heart. You only wish to flatter 
me." He had done everything, said he, to inspire his 
son with a love for military life, but he had not succeed- 
ed. Whoever loves a military life must love manly 
pleasures, not the occupations of women, not to take 
care of oneself, not to be afraid of heat and cold, hun- 
ger and thirst. And Fritz, on all occasions, took good 
care of himself, preferring to service and fatigue, a 
French book, hons mots, a comedy, or his flute. He had 
neglected his company of cadets, which was so fine, and 
was such a good one. "Ah! if I send to Paris for a 
flute-master, a dozen fifers, a troupe of comedians, a 
grand orchestra, two dozen dancing masters, a dozen 
petits-mattres, or if I were to build a fine theatre, this 
would please thee more than the Grenadiers; for they 
are of the canaille, in thy eyes, while a petit-maitre, a 
little Frenchman, a hon mot, a little musician, a little 
comedian {ein petit-maitre, ein franzoschen, ein hon 
mot, ein musiqueschen), behold all these are noble and 
royal and worthy of a prince {das scheinet was nohleres, 
das ist icas Jconigliches das ist digue d' un prince). Dost 
thou know thyself well? These were thy true sentiments 
up to the time of thy installation at Clistrin. What thy 
inclinations may be at present, I know not, but I Mill 
find out by thy conduct." — To become a soldier again, 
so be it! But thou must first become a good economist. 



332 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

A soldier who does not know how to take care of his 
money, who makes debts, is a worthless one. Charles 
XII. was a brave soldier, but a bad administrator. When 
he had money, he wasted it. He let his army starve to 
death, and was not able to establish himself again, after 
he had been vanquished. Occupy thyself with thy 
household accounts; learn the art of buying bargains; 
save something each time; do not spend thy money in 
little snuff-boxes and cases. . . ."^*^ 

It is easily seen, however, that the king only desired 
to be convinced little by little. The letters, in which 
Fritz, the flute-player, the Fritz of snuff-boxes, cases 
and bons mots, the little French Fritz, talked about 
farms, breweries and sheep-cotes; these letters were 
written to please him. He guessed that the young man 
had but repeated the lessons that were given him. It 
certainly was not Fritz who had discovered "a number 
of improvements" possible on the Wollup domain; it 
was the intendant. And, in addition to this, the king 
must have recognized the work of Hille, but his son had 
listened, since he repeated it; he had understood it; the 
fine mannered Fritz had entered the stables and his deli- 
cate nostrils had inhaled the odor of the manure. The 
proof that the king had been insensibly won over, and 
that he was disposed to make his ordeal lighter and to 
shorten it, is that he permitted the prince to return to 
Berlin, the latter part of November, 1731, to witness 
his sister's marriage. 

THE MARRIAGE OF WTLHELMINA. 

At last the Kins: of Prussia was sroinff to have his eld- 
est daughter married. 



THE SECOND EDUCATION. 333 

After the terrible scenes of the month of April, 1730, 
Wilhelmina had been a prisoner in her own apartments 
at the castle, in Berlin. 

The king had decided to settle the fate of his daugh- 
ter, so that she would be no longer a cause of embar- 
rassment, trouble and anger to him, but he did not 
yet know to which aspirant he would give her. For 
a long time, he had thought of marrying her, in case 
he had to renounce the English marriage, either to 
the Margrave of Schwedt or to the Duke of Weis- 
senfels. The Duke was a prince of the Empire ; we 
already know that the Margrave was of the House of 
Brandenburg, and a branch issue of the second marriage 
of the Great Elector. In the interval, Frederick Will- 
iam talked of sending his daughter "to the country," 
and of making her Coadjutrix of Herford. Then it 
became known that he had fixed his choice on the 
Hereditary Prince of Baireuth, of the Franconian 
branch of the Hohenzollerns. Then again, it was said 
that he had not renounced the English marriage for 
Wilhelmina. It is certain that the queen continued 
to negotiate with London, and clung to this hope. 
It is probable that the king himself, in the tumultu- 
ous dejiths of his thoughts, agitated this project together 
with the others, and that he would have been con- 
tented if Kino; Georo;e, bv a definite and decisive 
step, had asked Wilhelmina's hand for the Prince of 
Wales; but he had placed the negotiation in such a 
light that England, who had never even shown any 
generosity in all the matrimonial negotiation, would 
not give him the pleasure of an amende honorable. 



334 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

She (England) would have been quite willing to ar- 
range tha double marriage of Wilhelmina with the 
Prince of Wales, and Frederick with the Princess 
Amelia, because that would have implied a concession 
on the part of the King of Prussia. But for the sin- 
gle marriage she refused to make the advances ardently 
solicited by the queen. 

Wilhelmina relates ^*^ with a great elaboration of 
detail, the history of the days, weeks and months that 
she suffered in awaiting her misfortune, as she termed 
this marriage, which she held to be a misalliance. 

One day the king made known to her through the con- 
cierge^ Eversmann, that she must be resigned, as she was 
positively going to become the Duchess of Weissenfels. 
The concierge had begun by declaring to her that he had 
always loved her, having carried her about in his arms 
many times when she was a child, and *' everybody's fa- 
vorite." He then told her what was going on at Potsdam, 
where the king made the queen suifer a thousand mar- 
tyrdoms and she had grown to be very thin. Wilhel- 
mina responded haughtily to him, but the next day, on 
awaking, she found Eversmann near her bed. He re- 
lated another scene which took place the evening before 
at Potsdam, and the order that he had received to make 
some purchases for the nuptials, and the horrible threats 
that the king made to all those who would raise opposi- 
tion to the marriage, particularly to Mademoiselle von 
Sonsfeld, whom he was going to have whipped publicly on 
all the squares of the city.-^° Turning toward this lady- 
in-waiting, Eversmann sympathized with her for being- 
condemned to such infamous punishment, at the same 



THE SECOND EDUCATION. 335 

time saying that it would give him pleasure to see the 
appetizing spectacle of the whiteness of her back re- 
lieved by the blood coursing down it. 

While this "vile domestic" acquitted himself of the 
king's messages, the wife of a valet cle chamhre brought 
Wilhelmina word from the queen. She entreated her 
daughter to consent to nothing: "A prison," said she, 
" is better than a bad marriage." Mile, von Sonsfeld, 
whom the king's threat did not move, earnestly advised 
the princess to obey the queen. Wilhelmina, not know- 
ing how "to rid herself of her torments," closed her 
door and began to play on the harpsichord. A fright- 
ened lackey entered, announcing that four gentlemen 
were there, who had come to speak with her from the 
king. " Who are they ? " she inquired. In his fright 
the servant did not recognize the faces. Mile, von Sons- 
feld came before the gentlemen: it was an embassy of 
State, conducted by Grumbkow. Introduced into the 
apartments of the princess, they requested the lady-in- 
waiting to retire, and closed the door carefully. Wilhel- 
mina " was in a terrible state of fear, at sight of these 
proceedings." 

Grumbkow stated that the negotiations relative to the 
marriage were broken. He recalled the unhappiness that 
the obstinacy of the Court of England and the intrigues 
of the queen had brought to the House. He announced 
other misfortunes that would befall the queen, the prin- 
cess and the Crown Prince, who was leading a miserable 
life at Ciistrin. The family peace was depending upon 
Wilhelmina's resolution. It is true that she had been 
reared with ideas of grandeur and flattered herself with 



336 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

the prospect of wearing a crown, but great princesses 
were born to be sacrificed for the good of the State. 
Besides, grandeur after all did not constitute happiness. 
The best thing to do then was to submit to the decrees 
of Providence. If the princess obeyed, the king would 
give her double the amount he gave his other children 
and, immediately after the nu^^tials, would accord entire 
freedom to her brother. If she was head-strong, the 
order that Grumbkow carried, and which he then showed 
to her, was to conduct the princess to the fortress of 
Memel immediately, and Mile, von Sonsfeld and the 
other domestics were to be treated with severity. 

In the course of the harangue, the Minister had named 
the designed husband. It was no longer the " gross 
Weissenfels;" it was the Hereditary Prince of Baireuth. 
"He is of the House of Brandenburg," said Grumbkow, 
"and will inherit, after his father's death, a fine estate. 
As you do not know him, Madame, you can have no 
aversion to him. " Wilhelmina responde 1 with her custo- 
mary cleverness that all she had heard was right and sen- 
sible, and that she found no objections to it. "She did 
not know," she added, "how she had merited the 
disfavor of the king. He had disregarded her feel- 
ings in the matter. Why had he never spoken to her 
himself of her marriage? He had only addressed him- 
self to the queen, and made use of the services of 
that Eversmann to transmit his orders to her, to whom 
she had not deigned to reply, not judging it proper to 
communicate with him through a low domestic." Now, 
as she learned that the tranquillity of her family depended 
upon her decision, she determined to submit to the will 



THE SECOND EDUCATION. 337 

of the king. She only asked for the permission to ob- 
tain the queen's consent. But the four gentlemen ob- 
jected. '' You exact the impossible," said Grumbkow. 
"Everything is at stake," added another, tearfully. 
Wilhelmina walked to and fro seeking an expedient. 
Three of the gentlemen retired to the embrasure of a 
window; the fourth, Thulemeier, who was on the queen's 
side and that of France and England, took this opportu- 
nity to aj^proach the princess; he advised her to assent to 
all they exacted, promising that the marriage should not 
take place. He charged himself with making the queen 
understand that the announcement of the marriage with 
the prince of Baireuth was the only means of drawing 
from England a favorable declaration. Thus the eter- 
nal intriguing comes up again at this tragic moment. 
Three men bring the king's order ; a fourth, the advice 
to feign obedience. Wilhelmina grasped the subterfuge; 
she approached Grumbkow, declared that she was ready' 
to sacrifice herself for her family, and, under his dicta- 
tion, wrote a letter to the king. When she was alone 
she fell into an arm-chair, where Mile. Sonsfeld and the 
" company" found her in tears. Everybody in dismay 
began to cry with her.^^" 

At the same time that she wrote to her father, Wilhel- 
mina wrote to the queen. She asked pardon for the 
fault she had committed in obeying the king ; but she 
was only too glad to become the instrument of the hap- 
piness of her dear mother and brother. She soon re- 
ceived responses to her letters: the king said that he was 
l)leased to find her so submissive to his will, that God 
would bless her and never abandon her: as for himself 



338 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

he would take care of her all lier life, and prove to her, on 
all occasions, that he was her faithful father. The re- 
sponse of the queen was that she would no longer recog- 
nize her as her daughter ; that she would never pardon 
her for having sacrificed herself to the coterie of her jjer- 
secutors and swore eternal hatred. 

Wilhelmina soon learned through Eversmann that the 
king and queen were to return to Berlin. When she 
found herself in the presence of the king, she was sur- 
prised to see such a furious look on his face. But to the 
question: "Will you obey meV" she answered by 
throwing herself at her father's feet and swearing to be 
submissive. The whole physiognomy of the terrible man 
changed ; he raised her up, embraced her, and gave her 
a piece of stuff with which to adorn herself, and sent her 
to tlie queen, who overwhelmed her with abuses. Sophia 
Dorothea was not resigned to the loss of her aspirations. 
She made herself believe that tlie king was playing a 
comedy, to constrain King George to say the decisive 
word ; and as the king, the days following, spoke no 
longer of the marriage, as no one besides had had any 
news of the prince of Baireuth who was thought to be 
in Paris, she assumed a most charming humor. With 
the best grace possible, she did the honors of the castle 
to a numerous company of princes whom her husband 
had invited to a grand review of twenty thousand men 
to be given the 24th of May. But the day before, the 
king, after having requested her not to fail in going to 
the review with her daughter, commanded her to enter- 
tain the "princedom" that evening and have them sup 
with lier. Then he retired at seven o'clock. "Prince- 



THE SECOND EDUCATION. 339 

dom " played at faro until the hour for supper. Just 
as the company was about to be seated at table, a post- 
chaise crossed the court-yard and stopped at the grand 
staircase. Princes alone had this prerogative ; but no 
prince was expected. The queen, surprised, inquired 
who it was ; she learned that it was the prince of 
Baireuth. 

"The head of the Medusa never produced more terror 
than this news caused to this princess." You can imag- 
ine how the supper progressed. When the guests had 
retired, Wilhelmina begged the queen to release her from 
going to the review the following day, but the king had 
ordered it, and therefore it must be done. Tlie princess 
passed a sleepless night, watched by Mile, von Sonsfeld. 
She arose at four o'clock in the morning, " and put on 
three coijfes to hide her trouble," and presented herself 
in this guise to the queen, whom she accompanied to the 
review. 

They passed at the head of the troops; then the colonel, 
who was conducting the queen, having placed the carriage 
near a battery, said to Her Majesty that he had orders 
to present to her the prince of Baireuth ; tliis was imme- 
diately done. With a proud air, the queen received her 
future son-in-law and, after a few uninteresting questions, 
made him a sign to retire. Wilhelmina, disturbed by 
the heat and her emotion, left tlie queen's carriage to 
go and hide herself in that of the ladies-in-waiting. 

After the dinner which followed the review, the king, 
in an abrupt manner, seized tlie hand of the Margrave 
and conducted him to his daughter. During the repast 
he asked for a large covered goblet, and drank the health 



340 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

of the Margrave, addressing himself to Wilhelmina, who 
was forced to drink a responding toast. The trouble, 
anguish and despair of the princess drew tears from the 
witnesses of this scene. -'^ 

The 31st of May the king led the Margrave to the 
queen's apartments, and presented him to her as her fu- 
ture son-in-law and left them in tete-a-tete. Sophia Do- 
rothea, who had given a good welcome to Baireuth, in 
the king's presence, then said "sharp things" to him. 
But the prince did not lose his self-jjossession, and, in 
the evening, as the queen was withdrawing, he paid her 
a very pretty compliment. He was not unaware, said he, 
that she had destined her daughter to wear a crown, 
and that the rupture with the two Courts of England and 
France had given him the honor of being chosen by the 
king. He was the happiest of mortals, for daring to 
aspire to a princess for whom he felt all the respect and 
sentiment due her, but these same sentiments made him 
cherish her too much, to plunge her in unhappiness, 
through a marriage that was perhaps distasteful to her. 
He begged that the queen would express herself freely 
on the subject. Upon her answer would depend all the 
happiness or unhappiness of his life, for if it was not fa- 
vorable he would sever all his engagements with the 
king, however unfortunate it would be for him. The 
queen was silenced, but she doubted the sincerity of the 
prince, and responded that slie could only obey the or- 
ders of the king. "He made a very clever little 
speech," she said to one of her ladies, " but he did not 
catch me." 

The betrothal was celebrated June 1st. That morn- 



THE SECOND EDUCATION. 341 

ing, the king, while embracing Wilhelmina impetuously 
gave her the betrothal ring in which was set a large 
brilliant. He added a present of a service of gold, say- 
ing that it was a mere bagatelle^ since he intended to give 
her more valuable presents if " she did the thing with a 
good grace." In the evening the court and the princely 
guests awaited the king in the state apartments. The 
king appeared with the prince. He was agitated to such 
an extent that instead of having the betrothal in the 
grand hall where all were assembled, he immediately ap- 
proached his daughter, and holding her fiance by the 
hand, made him exchange rings with her. The queen 
was so changed that everybody noticed it. The princess 
was pale; her hands and knees trembled, and had she not 
been supported by her mother and another princess, she 
would have fallen. ^^^ She inclined before her father, to 
kiss his hand; the king raised her up and held her a long 
time in his arms; they mingled their tears together, for 
he also cried. He was in tears the whole evening, and 
just as the nuptial ball commenced, he advanced and em- 
braced Mile, von Sonsfeld, whom he had threatened a 
short while since to have publicly whipped. 

He, as well as all the guests, was sad during the 
lugubrious repast that followed the ball. "Kever," 
said the English minister, "was supper more melan- 
choly. All eyes were fixed upon the queen and princess; 
silence and the tears that coursed down the cheeks of 
those present, showed the sympathy that scene of injus- 
tice awakened in their hearts. "^^^ 

From this injustice, the author suffered as well as the 
victim. For six years the marriage affair had tormented 



342 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

the king. He had managed very badly indeed, but oth- 
ers had also been at fault. England had never attacked 
the question with sincere good will; the Queen of Prus- 
sia, the Crown Prince, and the Princess Wilhelmina had 
intrigued until it had amounted to treason. And so the 
king determined to put an end to the affair, but he was 
troubled by the resistance and the tears of his daughter 
and wife. He felt acutely that in forcing his daughter 
he was committing a mean act. To distract himself from 
this trouble, ]ie had recourse to the ways already famil- 
iar to him, of dining out and having one of his orgies, 
which ended in insomnia and night-mare. ^^* He dreaded 
these scenes of reproach and lamentation so much that 
he evaded tete-a-tetes with the queen and Wilhelmina. 
Several times we see him communicate with them by let- 
ter or messenger. During the days preceding the be- 
trothal, he betrayed, on every occasion, his embarrass- 
ment and something of a secret shame. He did not 
forewarn the queen of the arrival of the prince of 
Baireuth, whom he had presented to her by a colonel. 
At the dinner after the review, when he introduced the 
suitor to Wilhelmina, and in the betrothal ceremony, his 
inward disturbance was revealed by his gruff, abrupt 
manner. And then he overwhelmed his daughter with 
caresses and presents ; he covered her with his tears. 
Wilhelmina saw clearly " that he was reluctantly giving 
her in marriage." 

It seems that there was a fatality hanging over the 
heads of this family, condemning all tlie members to 
make one another suffer. 

These sad betrothal ceremonies gave no repose to 



THE SECOND EDUCATION. 343 

the princess. The queen, who still hoped to break the 
marriage, forbade her daughter to show any politeness to 
the Prince of Baireuth, or even to speak a word to him. 
She sought every opportunity "to taunt" her son-in- 
law, praising the grand qualities of her daughter, and 
the great extent of knowledge that she would give him. 
*'Do you know," said she, "anything about history, ge- 
ography, Italian, English, and music ? " "I trust I 
know my catechism and the credo,''^ answered the prince, 
laughing. The king, on his side, made the prince's life 
hard, whose j^olished, reserved manners he did not like; 
he essayed to inebriate him every day, "so as to form 
and strengthen his character." 

The suitor's situation in such a family was a singular 
one. As the marriage was not to be celebrated until 
November, he asked the king for a regiment ; it was 
given him. Before leaving he had an explanation with 
Wilhelmina. He repeated to her what he had said to 
the queen, that he would not have dared himself to as- 
pire to her hand ; the king had first made the proposi- 
tion to him, but he was ready, if she wished it, to sever 
the engagement, and make himself unhappy for the rest 
of his existence. He said, with tears in his eyes, the 
first words of love that Wilhelmina had ever heard. "I 
was not accustomed to such jargon," she said. But she 
found a pleasure in it that the arrival of the queen in- 
terrupted. Her mother did not lose sight of her an in- 
stant. The same evening of this interview, as Wilhel- 
mina and the prince were breaking together a hon-hon 
with some device on it, she arose from the table and 
led the princess away. She was ashamed of her "for not 
having more modesty." 



344 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

Sophia Dorothea was always expecting good news 
from England. One day she thought she had received 
it. It was at Wusterhausen, where the Prince of Baireuth 
had just come to join the royal family. The queen shut 
herself up with her daughter. "To-day," said she, 
" your atrocious marriage will be broken, and I think 
your silly prince will depart to-morrow," but she again 
was deceived. Nevertheless, she was not discouraged. 
She retained her daughter near her, as much as she could, 
watching her, and, from reports, accused her of co- 
quetting with her fiance on the sly ; but days and 
weeks passed. The marriage was fixed for the 20th 
of November. Wilhelmina relates that on the even- 
ing of the 19th, after a day, which she had spent over- 
whelming her daughter with unaccustomed caresses, the 
queen took her aside: *' You are going to be sacrificed 
to-morrow," she said ; but added, that she was expecting 
a courier, who would give the king entire satisfaction, 
only she did not know exactly when he would arrive. 
As she could find no expedient for delaying the celebra- 
tion of the ceremony, she had an idea, which would ease 
her mind: "Promise me," said she to her daughter, 
" to have no familiarity with the prince and to live with 
him as brother and sister, as this will be the only way 
to dissolve your marriage, which will not be valid unless 
this comes to pass."^^^ 

Tlie 20th of November, at four o'clock, the princess 
appeared for the sacrifice. The queen wished to pre- 
side at the toilet, but she was not clever in the vo- 
cations of a maid. She disarranged the coiffure, of 
which fashion decreed twenty-four curls of hair, as 



THE SECOND EDUCATION. 345 

thick as the arm, surmounted by the crown. Under 
this burden, clothed in a robe of silver cloth trimmed 
with Spanish gold j^oint, the train of which, twelve 
yards in length, was carried by four ladies, the bride 
advanced toward the great hall, where the King of Prus- 
sia had amassed all his luxury: portraits with solid 
silver frames, silver lustres worth 50,000 crowns, silver 
tables, and an orchestra stand of the same metal. In- 
stead of ordinary wax-tapers which were unworthy a 
place in this great salon, on this eventful day, large 
wax-lights spread their smoke abroad, blackening the 
faces, and dropping their grease upon the heads and 
clothes of those present. 

The benediction was attended by salvoes of artillery. 
Then they were seated at table, around which were 
ranged thirty-four princes. After supper they danced a 
torch dance according to the etiquette of the German 
Court. The Marshals of the House carrying their batons 
of office began the march ; the generals followed, each 
one holding a lighted taper. The newly wedded pair 
walked gravely around the room twice. The bride took 
each one of the princes in turn by the hand and walked 
around with them ; the bridegroom did the same with 
the princesses. The fete was over. The Margravine 
was first conducted into a gala chamber, where her sis- 
ters undressed her, the queen having considered her 
daughter unworthy of the honor of her assistance, 
which etiquette gave to her ; then she went to her 
own apartment, where her father made her recite aloud 
the Pater and the Credo. At supper, the king had 
the satisfaction of giving the husband, "just a little 
too much wine. " -^^ 



346 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

THE CROWN PRIXCE AT THE MARRIAGE OF HIS SISTER. 

A few days preceding her marriage, Wilhelmina 
claimed the execution of the promise given her, to par- 
don her brother. At Clistrin, the permission to leave 
was looked for impatiently; at last it arrived, but only for 
the third day of the nuptials. Neither the queen nor 
the princess was notified of Frederick's arrival. The 
king suddenly j)resented him to the queen, saying these 
words: " Here, Madame, is Fritz, who has returned." 
There was a ball in the grand apartment, where six hun- 
dred couples were dancing. The bride was leading a 
quadrille in the royal picture gallery. " I loved to 
dance," said she, "and was taking advantage of this op- 
portunity." Grumbkow interrupted her in the midst of a 
minuet: "Madame, you seem to be bitten by a tarantula. 
Do you not see those strangers who have just arrived ? " 
She stopped suddenly and, looking all around her, saw 
only a young man dressed in gray, " who was unknown 
to her." "Go and embrace the Crown Prince," said 
Grumbkow, " he is before you." "Oh! Heavens! my 
brother ! " cried she. But still she was looking for him; 
Grumbkow conducted her to the stranger. When she 
recognized him, (though not without some trouble, for he 
had fattened and his face was not so handsome as it was 
before,) she threw herself on his neck, laughing, crying, 
and talking in a desultory way. Then she fell at the 
king's feet, thanked him and begged him to give back 
his friendship to Fritz, whom she held by the hand. 
Again slie embraced her brother, adding the most tender 
words of affection. The assembly was in tears, but 
Fritz only responded by monosyllables. His sister pre- 



THE SECOND EDUCATION. 347 

sented his brother-in-law to him; he did not say a word. 
" He had a proud air and looked down upon everybody." 
At the end of the evening festivities she reproached him 
a little for his changed manner. He responded that he 
was still the same, but that he had his own reasons for 
acting in this way. 

The next morning Frederick had a long conversation 
with his sister. He told her of his misfortunes; she re- 
lated hers, and gave him to understand that she was sac- 
rificing herself for him. He thanked her, with caresses, 
but they did not come from his heart. Then he led her 
into a conversation on different subjects, to break up 
these confidences, and went to see her aj^artments. He 
met his brother-in-law who had discreetly withdrawn from 
the princess' chamber, when Frederick had entered. 
He looked at him " from head to foot and, after having 
proffered a few cold polite phrases, retired." It was 
only at the end of this visit, at the moment of fare- 
well, that the emotion of the young wife moved 
Frederick. "The leave-taking was more affectionate 
than the first interview." 

"I no longer recognize this dear brother, who has 
cost me so many tears, and for whom 1 have sacrificed 
myself," wrote the Margravine. She did not see clearly 
either her own heart or Frederick's. She, however, al- 
lows us to see her heart, without knowing it, in her 
Memoirs. It is a poor heart, not naturally tender, and 
is hardened by the cruelties of life. She had ardent- 
ly desired the marriage with the Prince of Wales, 
because she had heard every day since her infancy, 
that she was destined to wear a crown. She was. 



848 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

althougli she was careful about saying it, proud, am- 
bitious, and haughty, and felt herself capable of play- 
ing a grand role in the world. She had wit and pru- 
dence, and keen perceptions; she was mistress of her- 
self, and calm in dissimulation. She certainly would 
have comprehended State affairs. The resemblance to 
her brother was still strong; she had Frederick's high 
forehead, large clear hard eye, thin drawn lip, and 
even his bend of the head. She admitted, the day of 
her marriage, that the arrangement of her hair made 
her look like a little boy. She was not feminine, ex- 
cept through a certain sad charm, through her tears 
and her crying and fainting spells. 

To be Queen of Great Britain, to be seated on the 
throne that the Protestants thought to be the first in 
Europe, what a dream, particularly if her mother 
had told the truth, "that the husband destined for 
her was but an ordinary man and easy to manage;" 
for, then, the queen would be the true king. Sev- 
eral times, she had thought of attaining this desire ; 
but the repeated deceptions, the knowledge that she 
had of the character of the king and queen, the vio- 
lent acts of the one and the unskillfulness of the other, 
the melancholy in which she lived, had brought 
her at an early hour, to look for no good for herself. 
Existence had strengthened in her mind the belief in 
fatalism; she abandoned herself to it. During those 
days that the will of the king had been declared to her, 
she seemed to be resigned to the marriage with the 
Prince of Baireuth. She no doubt had spells of resist- 
ance and revolt. When she heard that the En<rlish 



THE SECOND EDUCATION. 349 

were murmuring against their king, that they still de- 
sired to see her established in England, and that the Prince 
of Wales could not resign himself to the idea of losing 
her, her pride rejoiced, but her hope did not return. She 
wished to make herself believe that she had no in- 
clination for the Prince of Wales, and that it would be 
perfectly absurd if she did, as she did not know him. 
She accustomed herself little by little to the marriage 
Avith the Prince of Baireuth. The day she received the 
first compliment from hev Jicuice hj a low bow without 
words, she remarked that he was tall and well-formed, 
and that he had a noble mien, and in default of beauty, 
his physiognomy was open and pleasing. Besides, he 
was of a great House, since he was of the Brandenburg 
blood; Wilhelmina had heard it said that the court of 
Baireuth was magnificent and greatly surpassed in rich- 
ness that of Berlin. These fine reports flattered her; 
she sought and found reasons for resigning herself to 
the inevitable. 

One can follow, in the Memoirs, her progress in the 
art of deceiving herself. In her writings, she lived 
again, one by one, those days of the year 1731, where- 
in her fate was being decided. It must have been ex- 
actly at the moment that her resolution had been taken, 
that she put in it a little digression upon the Baireuth 
family, and the description of the hereditary prince. A 
pretty picture of a man, who, although he had some few 
defects, a little too much levity, for example, " and such 
a thickness of speech that he expressed himself with dif- 
ficulty," yet, had many good qualities, "the power 
of maintaining an extreme gaiety, a quick conception, 



350 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

penetrating mind, kindness, generosity, far-seeing po- 
liteness and an even temper, all the virtues, in fact, with- 
out a single vice." To be brief, the perfect suitor for a 
prudent marriage. But underneath this, the sentiments 
that she tried to hide from herself re-appeared at the 
same time. She felt sharply her fall, and measured it 
by the diminution of respect shown her: " I was every 
one's idol, while I had hope of a brilliant future ; they 
courted me so as to have a share some day in my good 
fortune. They turned their backs as soon as their hopes 
vanished." Then with her customary bitterness of expres- 
sion: ''Iwas,"^" said she, " the target of this Court." 
She rendered to them disdain for disdain, and van- 
quished at last, " tired of being the toy of fortune," she 
came to a decision. She married so as to put an end to 
it all and go away. 

The Margravine is so sincere on these points, that she 
leaves to a second consideration, the sacrifice of her life 
for the peace of the family, for the happiness of her 
mother and the liberty of her brother. This devotion, 
in her heart as well as in her Memoirs, was of a second 
consideration. She may have ended in believing that 
her love for her brother was the principal reason for her 
conduct, but it came, in reality, from those subtle re- 
sources of self-pride, which find noble motives in actions, 
that are first resolved upon without noble intentions. 
No doubt Wilhelmina believed she was telling the truth 
when she explained to her brother "the obligations he 
owed to her." She imagined she had the right to com- 
plain of this "dear brother, who had cost her so many 
tears and for whom she was sacrificing herself." But 



THE SECOND EDUCATION. 351 

her brother knew the real state of things, the sad, ugly, 
reality; hence, this embarrassment in the interview. 

When Frederick heard at Clistrin the first news of the 
approaching marriage of his sister, — it was in May, — 
he was " in perfect anguish." "Behold," said he, "my 
sister is to be married to some beggar, and made un- 
happy for the rest of her life." This was the first 
emotion, a revolt of pride, at the same time, sorrow 
through fraternal friendship, for these two sentiments 
blended: "He had a deep regard for this worthy 
princess," wrote Hille, "and would like to see her 
upon the most brilliant throne of Europe." But, after 
"hours of reflection, he became a little more recon- 
ciled." He felt that his sister was in redoubtable 
hands that would not once relax their hold. From him, 
all resistance was useless and dangerous. He did not 
care about provoking a new conflict. "In the rigid and 
tiresome state " in which he was held, he had accus- 
tomed himself not to complain. Each day "increased 
the desire to leave." So he also gave himself reasons 
for being resigned. "The glory of the king," as he 
said, "exacted that the House of Brandenburg should 
not humiliate itself longer before the House of Han- 
over." "He stormed against the haughty pride of 
England." He ended at last in eulogizing his future 
brother-in-law. ^'^ 

In this state of mind, he reached Berlin. He arrived 
in the midst of the assembly as the festivities were about 
drawing to a close, — invited at the last moment, — a 
stranger in a gray coat. Since he had left this Court, 
he had j^assed days in which he had come face to face 



352 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

with death. And this Court was dancing. His sister 
was enjoying it to the fullest extent; she had not 
seen him enter; the minuet must be interrupted; Grumb- 
kow had to point out her brother, whom she did not rec- 
ognize ; Grumbkow put her in his arms. Upon these 
seven hundred couples, upon all this vast assemblage en- 
joying itself, — as if he were not himself, not the Crown 
Prince, still a prisoner in semi-liberty, and detained in 
the routine of a provincial chamber and the degrada- 
tion of a civilian's dress, — Frederick looked with 
the disdainful, contemptuous, threatening glance of a 
royal heir. The next day when he found himself in 
presence of his brother-in-law, he forgot the fine praise 
he had given this personage ; he eyed this contemptible 
fellow from head to foot ; he did not pardon his imper- 
tinence in having accepted the hand of the Crown Prin- 
cess of Prussia. Neither did he pardon the sister for 
having given this hand. Did she speak of sacri- 
fice? The true sacrifice would have been to allow her- 
self to be conducted to Memel, to endure everything, to 
save the future. Of the future, Frederick thought in- 
cessantly, to console himself for the present. He cast 
his glance into it and that look went far. I am certain, 
for my part, that in his calculations he had summed up 
the utility of a sister, as Queen of England. 

He and Wilhelmina understood each other no longer. 
The time was already long past, of their youthful 
sports, when they posed together under a sunshade held 
by a negro, before the Court painter ; when the little 
brother listened to the lessons of La Croze in the a])art- 
ments of his big sister ; and even that time, which 



THE SECOND EDUCATION. 353 

seemed so recent, when these two beings shielded each 
other in their intimacy, by means of their affection, their 
music, and their malicious talks, from the miseries of 
life ; they drew together in the storm. Now in this 
tete-a-tete they were no longer the same. '' His caress- 
es," said the Margravine, "did not come from the heart," 
but in Frederick's heart there were no longer any 
caresses. With him also the hardships of his fate 
had produced callousness. The fatality of life was 
weighing upon both of them. It pushed them to 
egotism and separated them, casting both brother and 
sister to their destiny, one here, the other, there. 

THE LAST DAYS AT ciJSTKIN. 

Frederick, during his stay at Berlin, had made rapid 
progress in the reconciliation with his father. The 
king gave him permission to be present November 29th, 
at a grand parade. An immense crowd, that assembled 
to see him, showed great demonstrations of joy, for the 
presence of the Crown Prince at a review was the best 
proof that the king wished to pardon him. Three days 
after, the generals, at whose head was Prince Anhalt, 
presented a request for reinstating the prince in his po- 
sition in the army. The king promised them to soon 
give him a regiment, which w^as in garrison at Ruppin, 
and gave permission for him to wear the blue coat, the 
rest of his visit. Frederick w^as "colonel elect" when 
he set out again for Ciistrin on the 4th of December. ^^^ 

There he put on his civilian's coat, and took up his 
work again in the chamber, inspecting domains and 
corresponding with the king. It was always the same 



364 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

tone. First, gratitude to his father for having permit- 
ted him to wear the officer's coat for a few days; an effu- 
sion of protestations of fidelity, respect, love, submis- 
sion, gratefulness. As stubborn as he was in resistance, 
so constant would he be in well doing. After our Lord 
God, he knew no other seignior than his most gracious 
father. If there still remained in him a single false 
vein, if he was not completely devoted to his father, 
may that father do his will.^^" In the next letter he sent 
" a plan for the commerce of Silesia," where he exposed 
the ways of disturbing the commerce of this prov- 
ince, to the profit of that of the kingdom. Then he re- 
lated a visit to Marienwalde, where he drew up a new 
lease with a net revenue {em plus) of 640 thalers. He 
proved an error of surveying and made them recom- 
mence the operation. He noticed that the peasants ev- 
ery day furnished corvee services with one horse, which 
was ruin to them. Would it not be better to ask this 
service but three times a week and have two horses? 
Every one would gain by it, the peasants would have 
freedom every other day, and the intendant of the do- 
main, who did not have need of daily service, would 
like the corvee better with two horses. Another day he 
sent some sample glasses from the glass works that he had 
established at Marienwalde. He proposed a way to 
draw a larger profit from these glass works. ^*^^ 

Through all this, flow compliments and humble lan- 
guage of submission. Frederick announces that he will 
go to devotion "to-day and to-morrow." He asks of 
his " very gracious father the permission to solicit from 
him a favor:" which is to be so kind as to send the new 



THE SECOND EDUCATION. 355 

regulations for the infantry. He could only give to his 
father his heart and his life, but his father had them al- 
ready; the only thing left for him to do was to redouble 
his earnest prayer to God, so that He would accord to 
the king the celestial benediction, without which we can 
do nothing. Three times he refers to the regulation 
which he intended to study "bravely." He courts his 
father with delicate attentions. As he had been in- 
formed that an animal had been slaughtered at Wallup, 
he sent for a piece which would make a fat roast, and ex- 
pedites it to his gracious father whom he knows is fond 
of it. As for himself, he regulates his household ac- 
counts as well as he can. The king asked him if his 
cook was a "good manager," or if he wasted the 
wine and the butter. In all submission, the prince 
confesses that in the beginning, he managed his house- 
hold affairs badly; he went over his accounts every 
evening with the cook, but he was cruelly [grauscmi) 
deceived, without knowing how or where. Then he 
allowed so much per day, and as the cook agreed to 
these terms, he never saw anything wrong after that; 
but this half-way kind of domestic never kept any- 
thing in order, and let everybody meddle with his 
affairs. The essential thing after all is, that the 
prince economizes with his . provincial allowance for 
each month. Now in January, he saved in his house- 
hold 20 thalers and more. He accustoms himself to 
drinking beer; beer is good. It is true that he has 
taken some champagne, but it was through order of his 
physician, and not through preference; he will not 
drink any more.^*^^ 



356 FREDEKICK THE GREAT. 

Of all this, the king believed what he wished to be- 
lieve; but he had not been discontented with the 
prince during his visit to Berlin. He remarked 
with pleasure that his son's letters were more pre- 
cise and penetrated more into detail. After the 
proposition relative to the service of corvees, he is 
surprised and delighted, sehr cojitent: "If you have 
found this yourself without aid," wrote he, "you are al- 
ready far advanced in economy." And he promised 
him a horse, " a fine horse." Very soon he had an ex- 
traordinary fit of generosity: " I have three horses for 
thee. . . . Always have God before thine eyes; 
only be obedient. Learn to keep thy household ac- 
counts well, to manage thy money in the right way, to 
spend nothing until thou hast duly reflected whether it 
is not possible to buy the article cheaper. Apply thy- 
self so that I can be prouder and prouder of thee. Then 
thy position will improve through the grace of God, 
and I will establish thee well." In post-scriptum^ he 
jH'omised him a service of silver. ^^^ 

It seems then that all was for the best, and that the 
father and son understood each other marvelously well 
on all points. But, at this time, when the King of Prus- 
sia ceases to abuse Frederick in his letters, and begins 
again to say thee^ mixing thou and you together, as in the 
reconciliations of lovers, he prepares a trial for him, in 
every way resembling the one that Wilhelmina had just 
undergone; he wishes to marry him according to his 
own inclination. His demonstrations of affection re- 
semble those of the knight who strokes his horse's head 
so that the animal will open his mouth for the bit. 



THE SECOND EDUCATION. 357 

Before arriving at this new crisis in the life of the 
Crown Prince, we must pause a moment, in order to 
seek the point of develof)ment to which he has advanced 
since his sojourn of one year and a half at Ciistrin. 

His sister had not recognized him. He was, in fact, 
much changed. A portrait, which seems to have been 
taken in his eighteenth year, before the prison life, 
gives him a long face, or rather, to better describe it, an 
attenuated face, a distrustful look, half sad, uneasy, an 
indefinable expression of melancholia and vice. At Ciis- 
trin, he gained strength ; his shoulders broadened and 
his face became fuller : " You will see," said Hille to 
Grumbkow, before the visit to Berlin, "Your Excellen- 
cy, that he is changed. He has a firm, easy carriage. I 
find that he no longer has that marquis-like air that 
he had before." A visitor remarked that he had ''grown, 
and looked as though he was in good health and spirits." 
This was the effect he produced on everybody when he 
was at Berlin. The king, who was not easy to please, 
noticed that he still walked in a careless fashion, but he 
had to acknowledge that the boy held himself firmer on 
his feet. A thing that must have given the king great 
pleasure was, that Frederick, in growing stouter, began 
to resemble him. Several times Hille was surprised to 
remark in the two physiognomies a family likeness. 
Naturally it was, when the prince was in a bad humor 
that this similarity was more noticeable. " It is sur- 
prising how much he resembles, at certain times, Jupi- 
ter armed with his thunder."-'^* 

Several of the prince's traits of character made those 
around him, who observed them, uneasy; first his im- 



358 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

moderate taste " for the brilliant, what the French call 
esprit.'''' *'The prince," said Hille, "prides himself ex- 
tremely upon having this brilliancy. The best way of 
gaining his friendship will be to praise him, and not by 
procuring recruits about ten feet high. He is ca- 
pable of being deceived in his councillors later, on ac- 
count of this failing. Plain good sense does not please 
him, even added to all knowledge, solidity and 
virtue. ... A sentiment, seasoned with a hon 
mot, with some point to it, will call him from the 
bare, solid facts. He hardly knows German. He finds 
that the men w^ho haunt Potsdam are not filled with the 
ideas that form a man of esprit and polish, through 
the reading of French books. Whence comes his predi- 
lection for this nation ? He believes the French are 
what they paint themselves in their books. The ones 
that he sees do not undeceive him, for he thinks them 
a little spoiled by contact with the Germans. 
Through prejudice in their favor he finds merits in them 
of which they themselves are ignorant. " ^"^^ 

Like the French, Frederick piqued himself upon "a scru- 
pulous politeness," even in regard to people who were not 
his "equals," but his politeness is that of a grand seignior. 
He knows his rank and shoAvs it. After a very familiar 
conversation, some ofiicers are presented to him; he re- 
ceives them in a kingly manner. He suffers " at being 
reduced to the level of the civilians of a little town, as 
much by the intercourse with them as by his occupa- 
tion." He has pride, the haughtiness of a Crown 
Prince and a nobleman, and cannot conceal his disgust for 
the men of the i)eoi)le. He is delighted at the death of 



THE SECOND EDUCATION. - 359 

a certain Thiele, whom he detests as much as he does 
his brother, the colonel, because they are not of noble 
birth; they occupy too high positions. One day Hille, 
questioned by him as to what was going on in the cham- 
ber, answered that they were examining the accounts of 
the Laiidrath of Selchow. The prince uttered an excla- 
mation, finding it very extraordinary that a nobleman 
should be obliged to give an account to civilians. Hille, 
who was of the people himself, found this impertinence 
a little too much. He replied, that " effectually, every- 
thing was reversed in this world, and that one could 
better account for it, when one considered that princes, 
who did not have common sense, and only amused them- 
selves with bagatelles, had command nevertheless of 
very sensible peoj)le. That ended it. If it made him 
angry, I have had the pleasure of telling him a truth that 
he will not always hear." It is quite evident that the 
prince is a mocker ; he acknowledges that what pleases 
him the most is to observe others ridiculed. ^^® 

His morals are very light. By his proposals he scan- 
dalized Schulenburg, the President of the Council 
of War, whom he went to visit in the autumn of 1731. 
The old man had undertaken to read him a lecture. He 
passed in review all the duties of this life. Upon filial 
obedience which, "according to all. human and divine 
law," said Schulenburg, "ought to be blind," Frederick 
made many objections, giving thus a singular com- 
mentary upon his letters to his father, so full of pro- 
testations of absolute submission. "I fear nothing," 
said he, " so much as to be again near the king." 
However, he showed usually very good sentiments in 



360 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

regard to the king. Hille, to whom these sentiments 
had at first appeared very doubtful, ended by believ- 
ing them. "He is sure," he wrote, "that those who 
suspect the prince of not loving his father and his 
House deceive themselves." Yes, it is certain that 
he loved his House. As to his father, it is probable 
that he was grateful for his leniency in his disobedi- 
ence, and that he may have even begun to render the 
justice due to the organizer of the Prussian power; 
but did he love him ? When he learned that his sis- 
ter of Baireuth was enceinte^ he wrote to the king to 
congratulate him, and expressed the hope "that his 
very gracious father would see the children of his 
children, in contentment and health. "^*^^ I am afraid 
that Frederick, who told many lies in his life, 
only repeated in this case, one of his greatest false- 
hoods. 

Upon the subject of marriage, Frederick's ideas 
shocked all the Ciistrin colony and the good Schulen- 
burg. As he had reasons to fear a marriage not ac- 
cording to his tastes, he tranquilly declared: "If the 
king wishes me absolutely to marry, I will obey ; after 
which, I will settle my wife somewhere and live at my 
ease." Schulenburg objected that, first of all, such con- 
duct was "against the law of God, since He says ex- 
pressly that adulterers will not inherit the kingdom of 
heaven, and, secondly, against honesty, since one must 
always hold to one's engagements." "But," replied the 
prince, " I will give my wife the same liberty." New 
exclamations from Schulenburg. The prince responded 
to them " as a young man." He repeated that he was 



THE SECOND EDUCATION. 361 

young and wished to profit by life. "Take care," re- 
plied the mentor, "do not give yourself up to women; the 
king, notified of it, would give you much sorrow; you 
would ruin your health; without counting the many 
heartaches which accompany this sort of pleasure." — 
"Bah!" Frederick began again, "when you were young, 
you were not any better; and even now who knows what 
passed on your last visit to Vienna?" 

Schulenburg was always leading to subjects pertaining 
to God. The prince did not express himself on the 
topic of religion. He contented himself with saying 
that God is good and will pardon our peccadilloes, but 
he was in reality becoming irreligious, he who spoke to 
his father of his devotions. When Hille expressed the wish 
that God would give to the prince " a little more piety," 
he employed a euphemism. 

- The way of living imposed upon him, and to which 
he resigned himself in his letters to his father, was never- 
theless very distasteful. He ate little but was " fond of 
side dishes and high-living." It is not true that he be- 
came accustomed to beer, nor that he drank champagne 
but to obey the physician's orders. However, he drank 
very little; the wine he preferred for daily use was Bur- 
gundy, with water in it. He continued not to like the 
chase, however much he may have appeared to take 
pleasure in it. One day as Hille asked him how he 
would arrange his life, if he were master, he said: "Do 
not say anything about it, but I assure you that reading is 
one of my greatest pleasures. I like music, but I am 
fonder of dancing. I hate the chase, but delight in 
horseback ridinoj. If I were master I would do all this 



362 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

whenever I chose; but I would employ a good part of 
my time in my affairs. . . . And then, I would 
see that my table was properly and delicately served, al- 
though without profusion. I would have good musi- 
cians, but only a few, and never music during repasts, 
for it sets me to dreaming and keeps me from eating. I 
would dine alone and in public, but I would invite my 
friends to sup with me and treat them w^ell." For his 
dress, he would always wear a uniform, " but with very 
magnificent surtouts." In telling these projects of the 
day when he would be master, he " entered into a kind 
of ecstasy." 268 

While awaiting the hour, Frederick continued to 
carry on his mock economy, and his business as inspector 
of domains. When he set out for Berlin in the month 
of October, 1731, he sent to Madame von Wreech a 
proposed plan that he "really made himself" of 
his entrance into the city. ' ' I will be preceded by a 
drove of pigs that will be made to squeal loud. 
After them will come a troop of sheep and lambs. 
These will be followed by oxen from Podolia, which 
will immediately precede me. . . Mounted upon 
a great ass, whose harness will be as simple as pos- 
sible, instead of pistols, I will have two sacks filled with 
different kinds of seed . . . ; instead of a saddle 
and blanket, I will have a sack of flour, upon which my 
noble form will be seated, holding instead of a whip, a 
switch in my hand, having in place of a cap, a straw 
hat on my head. . . . Around me will be peasants 
armed with scythes ; behind, will follow the noblemen ; 
upon a car heaped witli manure, the heroic figure of 



THE SECOND EDUCATION. 363 

Natzmer; on tbe top of a hay wagon, the frightful face 
of the terrible Rohwedel. The procession will end 
with Herr von Wolden, who will have the kindness to 
pass away his time upon the top of a load of wheat and 
barley. "269 

Frederick can never be trusted when he rails in this 
manner. He went beyond and did worse than the French 
fashion. It is in vain for him to deny it; he knew 
economy. He had studied the soil, cultivation, animals 
and peasants. He knew how a farmer "converted ev- 
erything into money," and what it cost a laborer, as his 
father said, to save a thaler. He had said to Hille, 
that, when he should be occupied in his own affairs, he 
would not attend personally to the State: "I will 
confide this part to you and others," but he was as capa- 
ble of making an examination of State affairs as his 
father. One sees already that he will not be prodigal. 
Hille remarks, and this is of importance, "for that 
which pertains to generosity, he has need of habitual 
practice." It was not in vain that his father forced him 
to learn the price of butter; Frederick will never sell it 
under price. 

The things which interested him the most in economy 
were the State affairs, intermingled with politics. His 
"plan for the commerce of Silesia" must have been 
made with the collaboration of Hille, who laid the 
matter before him, but he was extremely interested 
in it. "I am at present up to my ears in my com- 
merce of Silesia," wrote he to Grumbkow. The work 
occupied him to such an extent that, when they asked 
him if he desired mustard with his beef, he was about 



364 FREDEKICK THE GREAT. 

to reply: "Let us see the new list of customs." 
"When he is occupied with a thing," he added, "he is 
over head and ears in it, " ^™ Now this is the true way 
to do everything. In order to compose a memorandum, 
he found, on looking at the map, that his father pos- 
sessed "nearly the whole coast of the Baltic from 
Memel to the Peene,"^'^ and that Silesia, whence 
came all the commercial trouble of the kingdom. 
He certainly made on the subject of this province, 
and that of Poland, which interrupted, by the mouth 
of the Vistula, the Prussian line, dangerous reflec- 
tions for the Austrian and Polish neighbors. 

He could not keep from talking, what is rightly called 
politics. One evening he had a conversation with Natzmer 
which was prolonged far into the night, and which 
never came to an end, sleep overtaking the two young 
men while they were "selling their merchandise." The 
prince wished to conclude it and give a resume of his 
" system " in a letter to Natzmer. 

Here it is in a few words; for the present, peace; for a 
King of Prussia, whose countries traverse Europe di- 
agonally, "and have not a great enough connection, all 
enclosed as they are by neighbors, can be attacked from 
more than one side." 

In order to protect himself from all his neighbors, he 
would have to place the whole army on the defensive, 
and there would be nothing left for the offensive. But 
it must not remain in this state. This would be " a 
very bad policy and come from a person devoid of all 
invention and imagination. When one does not go for- 
ward, one goes backward." The question is, to procure 
more and more the aggrandizement of the House. 



THE SECOND EDUCATION, 365 

" The most important thing is ' to draw the Prussian 
countries more together, to connect the severed portions, 
which belong naturally to the portions we possess, such 
as Polish Prussia.' . . . These countries being ac- 
quired, not only will it make an entirely free passage 
from Pomerania to the kingdom of Prussia, but the 
, reins can be drawn on the Poles, and it will place us in 
[y a state to dictate laws to them."' But, " let us go far- 
ther. Here is Citerior-Pomerania. It is only sepa- 
rated from us by the Peene, and would make a very 
pretty effect combined with our territories. One would 
gain more revenue, but the word revenue belongs to 
financiers and commissioners." The true profit in the 
acquisition would be to place the House above all insults 
which might come from the Swedes, to give more lib- 
erty to the main body of the army, which would other- 
wise have to defend the Peene, to enlarge the country 
more, and to open in this way, " the road to a conquest, 
which, you might say, offers itself to us; that is, the 
country of Mecklenburg." Advancing from country to 
country, from conquest to conquest .... like 
Alexander .... he moves on toward the Rhine. 
To the Prussian countries of Cleves and Mark, he wishes 
to add so as they may not be so "lonely and compan- 
ionless," Berg and Juliers. Once united, these prov- 
inces can sustain a garrison of 30,000 men. They will 
then be in a state of defense, instead of which, as it 
stands, the single country of Cleves, is incapable of de- 
fending itself, and belongs to the king only as long as 
the French have the discretion to let him keep it. Over 
these territories, Brandenburg has some rights, but the 



366 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

prince does not plead them; " he reasons only in pure 
politics," and can not stop before each word to make a 
" digression." He simply wishes to prove that there is 
"political necessity" to acquire these provinces. He 
hoped that all he said would be found reasonable, 
" for when things are in the state that I have just laid be- 
fore you, the King of Prussia will cut a fine figure with 
the great of the earth, and play one of the grand roles. . . . 
I wish this House of Prussia, to rise up entirely- out of 
the dust in which she is now lying dormant. ^'^ . . ." 
If King Frederick William had read this manifesto, 
he would have been reassured about Prussia's future. It 
was this future entire that the Crown Prince foresaw 
and examined. His theory of the " political necessity" 
of certain conquests, with posterior allegation and sub- 
sidiary " reasons of right," he first, and others follow- 
ing, applied. He speaks to perfection in that very 
unique Prussian manner, where bitter irony, which 
cuts, alternates with humanitarian and religious phrase- 
ology, and the indelicacy of power with the mysticism of 
a priestly devotion; for this philosopher, speaks like a 
preacher. Upon the same leaf of paper, the space of a 
few lines from the proposition of the conquest of 
Swedish Pomerania to "enlarge " Prussian Pomerania, 
and that of Juliers and Berg, to keep company with Cleves 
and Mark, which are "so lonely," he protests that his 
House "has no other enemy to fear but celestial anger." 
If he wishes Prussia "to rise from the dust," it is " to 
spread the Protestant religion, to be the shelter for the 
afflicted, the support of widows and orphans, the suste- 
nance of the poor and the judge of the unjust." He 



THE SECOND EDUCATION. 367 

would rather see her abused, "if injustice, lack of relig- 
ion, favoritism or vice should prevail over virtue from 
which may God preserve her always. . . ." 

One can almost imagine this to be a Bismarck or a 
William I. who speaks. 

Frederick was eighteen years old when he wrote this 
letter, which throws a strong light upon his character. 
His genius has not yet matured. Contrasts and contradic- 
tions, which astonish and worry those who observe them, 
are found in him. Some judge him wrongfully. Schu- 
lenburg, imagines " that passions rule him entirely and 
pleasure holds a larger place in his heart than anything 
else;" Schulenburg only saw him for a short time; the 
prince was mocking him. Wolden was a great admirer 
of his "subordinate." He found in him "all the requi- 
site qualities of a grand seignior." He saw all the profit 
the prince had gained by his sojourn at Ciistrin: "In 
addition to adversity, which has formed his heart and 
mind, the prince begins to have a just idea of the good 
of many things which he never knew before." And, "he 
is capable of everything, with the penetration that he 
has," but he is not yet matured, and Wolden twice ut- 
ters the wish "that God may accord the king some 
years more of life. Otherwise we would see very sad 
calamities befall the poor country, by a sudden change." 
Hille knew better than anyone the value of his pupil. 
He divined that Frederick would be one of the greatest 
princes of the House of Brandenburg, but he found, like 
Wolden, that he lacked something. They had reason to 
have some uneasiness: the true Frederick was not yet 
disentangled from the contradictions of his own nature, 



368 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

and the opposing influences which were at work within 
him. They also had reason to hope; they saw the 
young eagle of Prussia leaving the Qgg. They were 
not the only ones who saw him. Prince Eugene, to 
whom the letter to Natzmer had been communicated, 
observed that "the ideas of this young lord went far," 
and that he would one day become <'very redoubtable to 
his neighbors." The old servitor of Hapsburg had a 
presentiment of the young eagle's talon. 



CHAPTER. VI. 

THE MARRIAGE OF FREDERICK THE GREAT. THE INTEN- 
TIONS OF AUSTRIA. 

We have made several allusions, in the preceding 
pages, to the marriage of the Crown Prince. We 
must now take up again the history of this new trial 
imposed on Frederick by his father. This chapter of 
Frederick's youth completes our knowledge of him, and 
points out to us curious traits of political morals; great 
forces put into action in order to obtain poor, contemp- 
tible, low results; great personages solemnly committing 
foolish acts, — for the history of Frederick's marriage is 
that of an attempt made by Austria to take posses- 
sion of the Crown Prince of Prussia, and make him 
her dependent. 

The policy of the Court of Vienna was difficult, at 
this stage of the eighteenth century. The Emperor 
Charles VI. seemed to be the most powerful monarch of 
Christendom. The regulation of the Spanish succes- 
sion and the Peace of Passarowitz had added to the old 
hereditary provinces and to the kingdoms of Hungary 
and Bohemia, on one side, Milan, Naples, and Sardinia 
soon exchanged for Sicily; on the other side, Banat, 
North Servia with Belgrade, and Little Wallachia up to 
the Aluta. The imperial dignity was ornamented, be- 
sides, with the brilliancy which it had acquired by pre- 



370 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

serving this mosaic of kingdoms and principalities; it 
gave the Emperor some authority over the Germanic 
corps. But the House of Austria had many enemies: 
first, her two traditional adversaries, France and Turkey, 
then the Bourbons of Spain, who coveted the two Sici- 
lies. Against a coalition always possible of these three 
l^owers, Austria could not depend upon the suj^port of 
England and Holland; these countries were hostile to 
her not only through religious antipathies, which were 
not yet extinct, but since Austria possessed the Belgian 
provinces and claimed her part of the ocean commerce, 
the two maritime powers united to refuse it to her. The 
kingdom of the Hapsburgs, which extended from Ostend 
to Belgrade and from Breslau to Palermo, was in a dan- 
gerous position. 

It was incoherent both in its ensemble and in its divis- 
ions. The kingdom of Hungary, for example, was not 
a single country. Her annexes, Croatia, Slavonia, and 
Transylvania, were nothing less than Hungarian. The 
old hereditary countries were of a mixed race. Even in the 
groups of homogeneous races, there were some differ- 
ences, between the Tyrol and Breisgau, between Naples 
and Milan. It is true that the nationalities had not yet 
been awakened. They lived an obscure life, very differ- 
ent the one from the other, by race and tongue, geograph- 
ical position, traditions, sentiments and interests; but 
provided they were not disturbed in their local customs, 
they did not think of revolting. Every one of these 
fragments recognized the sovereignty of the Hapsburgs. 
* The Emperor conformed to the exigencies of his condi- 
tion. He did not pretend to submit to the same regime 



THE MARRIAGE OF FREDERICK. 371 

all these diverse beings. He was not one sovereign ; be 
was a collection of sovereigns, a congress in one person, 
but this multiplicity rendered activity difficult; there was 
in the eighteenth century an Hapsburgian inertia. Aus- 
tria held together only on condition that she made as 
few moves as possible. Now a great crisis menaced her. 
Charles YI. lost in December, 1716, the son who was 
born to him in the month of April of the same year, after 
eight years of married life. Since then, he had had two 
daughters given him, Maria Theresa, in 1717, and Maria 
Anne in 1718. No prayer or pilgrimage, had obtained 
from heaven the gift of an heir. Thenceforward, the 
disunion of the empire of the Hapsburgs was foreseen and 
ex^jected; the Austrian succession entered into the calcu- 
lations of politics, as did the succession of Spain in the 
preceding century. The whole policy of Charles VI. 
had for its object the procuration integrally to Maria 
Theresa, of the paternal inheritance. The Pragmatic 
Sanction, which regulated this great affair, was presented 
on all occasions, to the powers of Europe. It was cov- 
ered with signatures, which were just so many falsehoods. 
Even in this cold Europe of the eighteenth century, 
which did not know the passions of the souls of nations, 
everybody felt that the Hapsburg chaos had no cause for 
existing, and that for Austria, political expression was 
not necessary. 

The principal care of the ministers of state of Vienna 
ought to be to assure themselves against all German 
enemies, and even to find allies in Germany, by paying 
them the price necessary. The designed ally was the King 
of Prussia. 



372 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

Now as Austria had but a hundred and some odd 
thousand men to defend Belgrade against the Turk, Milan 
against the King of Sardinia, Naples against the King 
of Spain, Brussels against the King of France, the 
King of Prussia could fall any day upon Silesia with a 
large army, since it was open on all sides and badly pro- 
tected. The ally that must be paid well, was this king. 
Austria knew what she had to dread from Prussia, 
but her pride of position as an old power, and an in- 
capacity — which we find even to-day — of making at 
the right moment the sacrifices necessary, restrained 
her. She thought that it would be sufficient to court 
the King of Prussia with words upheld with vague 
promises, to surround him, to have him watched, to 
provoke and pay the treachery of his ministers, am- 
bassadors, fools and domestics. To hold this maniac 
in check, all that was necessary, was the presence of 
Seckendorff at the "Tobacco College," a few thousand 
florins distributed each year, and about twenty giant 
recruits sent at the opportune moment. 

The success of this policy was qualified to deceive 
the court of Vienna. The tumultuous King of Prus- 
sia was continually pulling, but never breaking, the 
cord that Vienna held out to him, relaxing or tight- 
ening his grasp, whenever it suited him. Austria 
knew, as well as and better perhaps than the rest of 
Europe, the changeableness of Frederick William's mind. 
She was, on the whole, contented with him and, in all 
sincerity, wished him a long life. 

Unfortunately, the King of Prussia compromised his 
health by his way of living. Seckendorff and Prince 



THE MARRIAGE OF FREDERICK. 373 

Eugene, the one near, the other at a distance, watched 
him with solicitude. The greatest pleasure of this 
prince was to know that the king was well: '' I am de- 
lighted," wrote he to Seckendorff, " that you have found 
the king in such good health. 1 hope that it will last; 
I earnestly wish it with my whole heart. If he would 
only habituate himself little by little to temperance, ab- 
stain from smoking and drinking so much ! " ^^^ Secken- 
dorff made a respectful representation of it, on behalf 
of both Prince Eugene and himself: " You smoke too 
much. Sire ! " And the king would smoke several pipes 
less, to please Prince Eugene. But he would fall again 
into his passions; hardly a year passed that he did not 
risk his life. And then, he seemed to approach so near 
to madness that he might any moment reach it ; there 
was no dependence to be placed in him; in order to be 
assured of the future, they must assure themselves of 
the Crown Prince. 

It was a first step towards it to have broken the mar- 
riage alliance with England. They must now render the 
rupture permanent by marrying the prince, and choosing 
the future Queen of Prussia from the dependents of Aus- 
tria. Hardly had Frederick left his prison when Prince 
Eugene engaged Seckendorff to prepare the way for 
Frederick's marriage with a niece of the Empress, the 
Princess Elizabeth of Brunswick-Bevern. Seckendorff, 
as early as the month of December, 1730,^'* required the 
aid of Grumbkow, and the prince, some days later, was 
questioned upon his intentions in regard to marriage. 
His first declarations were not encouraging. He said to 
Hille that he would not marry youug; a spying wife 
who, each year, would become "older and uglier," would 



374: FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

soon be intolerable to him. He would marry then at 
forty, a princess of fifteen, who would be in the bloom 
of beauty. ^^^ Several months later, in April, 1731, a 
queer idea came to Frederick. 

At midnight, he sent for Hille, who arose and went 
to him, and under his dictation, wrote out a scheme, des- 
tined for Grumbkow. The j)rince began by complain- 
ing of the useless efforts that he had made to regain the 
king's favor. As he feared that his father would sus- 
pect him of having secret views in regard to his mar- 
riage, he declared that, if he had had any, he there re- 
nounced them willingly. He was ready to abide by the 
king's intentions, if his majesty had any, as he had 
heard, towards the House of Austria. He would volun- 
tarily marry the Arch-Duchess Maria Theresa, provided 
they did not require him to change his religion, "which 
he protested before God that he would never desire to 
do, for no human consideration of whatever nature and 
importance it might be." Foreseeing that Europe would 
be alarmed at seeing the hereditary States of Austria and 
the House of Prussia united, he proposed to renounce 
the latter, in favor of his brother William, provided 
they would assign him something wherewith to live be- 
fitting his rank during the life of the Emperor. 

On reading this strange message, Grumbkow was 
struck with amazement (fell froni the clouds). He im- 
mediately sent it back to Ciistrin, begging Hille to burn 
it as soon as ])ossible. Tlie king, said he, will be in a 
fine state of anger, if he has an inkling of this fancy. 
His majesty not only has never thought of such a mar- 
riage, but he would have any one luing that m'ouUI sug- 
gest the idea to him. The honest Grumbkow, before 



THE MARRIAGE OF FREDERICK. 375 

sending this document back, of which he so strongly 
feared the revelation, made a copy that he communicated 
to Seckendorff. He in his turn transmitted it to Prince 
Eugene. The two Austrians almost split their heads 
trying to find out the explanation of this mystery. 
These marriage reports having been circulated by news 
mongers, they thought that the prince wished to know 
exactly how he stood, and that he had thus given a new 
proof of his "falsity." It is more than likely, however, 
that Frederick had thought of this means for discovering 
the king's projects. At the same time, he seized the op- 
portunity of showing his docility, and affirming his defi- 
nite renunciation of " secret and disagreeable views," 
evidently with the hope of moving the king at last, and 
leaving the "drudgery" a little sooner. 

The effect of this fancy proved to be entirely contrary 
to what he expected. Prince Eugene had found the 
project astounding, wunderlich. He compared it to the 
letter written to Natzmer, upon the politics of Prussia, 
and concluded from these signs that, if the prince was 
not yet very reflective, he was not lacking "either in 
reason or vivacity." He returned then to the idea of 
the marriage that he had had in mind, possessed with 
the thought that the only way of correcting the false 
"principles" of Frederick was to make him accept the 
Princess of Bevern: " There was no hope outside of the 
Bevern marriage." ^'^ 

THE DECLARATION OF THE KING. 

No sooner said than done. Eight days after Prince 
Eugene had sent his orders to Seckendorff, the King of 
Prussia wrote Wolden to prepare Frederick for marriage. 



376 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

It was one of those strange letters, wherein was mingled 
a medley of household accounts, the question of wood 
for fuel, reproaches for his son's treason, raillery at his 
mannerisms, his ways of a petit-maitre^ and the invoca- 
tion of the grace of God. "Besides," said he at the 
close, and as if in ^os^scri}:)^i<m, "my son . . . , if 
I deem it j^roper, must marry and not with a princess of 
the House of England; I will give him his choice among 
a few. You can tell him this, — and I am your very af- 
fectionate king." 

"Good God!" cried Hille, "how unlucky will it be, 
when they attempt to force the inclination of the prince, 
who is not so easily disposed to making a choice without 
having seen and bagged his game!" However, the prince 
felt that resistance would be impossible. Wolden as- 
serted that he had accepted the thing "with entire resig- 
nation to Providence and blind submission to the order of 
his majesty." The good Marshal wished to make himself 
believe that, tired of his mode of life, and ardently de- 
siring an end to his domestic troubles, the young man 
would just adapt himself to circumstances, when it was 
a question of marrying, provided that they gave him a 
little liberty, and that the wife who was destined for 
him would be pleasing, and that he would have some- 
thing with which to maintain his little Court. But will 
these conditions be granted ? Wolden is melancholy. 
"All this is not very rejoicing," he said. Like Hille, he 
felt that fresh storms were brewing. ^^^ 

The kinff took note of the submission of his son: "Let 
him continue," wrote he, "it will bring him fine profit." 
As he had promised the prince to allow him to choose 



THE MARRIAGE OF FREDERICK. 377 

from among a few parties, he commissioned Grumbkow, 
the middle of Jmie, 1731, to take to Ciistrin a list of 
princesses. There were but three names: Saxe- 
Gotha, Eisenach, Bevern. Grumbkow, who knew 
the play, presented the forced card. Frederick made 
a pretense of taking it; he decided for Bevern; but 
on two conditions: first, that the j^rincess was "neither 
stupid nor disgusting;" second, that the king would 
give him enough for a maintenance. Besides, he af- 
fected at this moment to be above all worldly affairs. It 
was then that he was boasting to Grumbkow of having be- 
come a great poet. He added that he ' 'would be neither 
a general nor warrior, not wishing to mingle himself 
in any of the details of his affairs: to render his peo- 
ple happy, he would choose good ministers and 
allow them to do it." Seckendorff delivered to Prince 
Eugene this happy prognostic.''''^ 

Frederick always hoped that some incident would 
arise to disarrange the king's projects. He was not 
at all resigned. The marriage topic was often renewed 
in his conversations at Ciistrin. In advance, he began 
to hate the Princess of Bevern. "She is silly and 
ugly," said he to Hille. "But, even supposing this 
is true, could you not love her and live with her ? " 
— "Assuredly not, I will settle her somewhere as soon 
as I am master. I ought to be pardoned for getting 
out of the affair as well as I can." It is the same 
speech that he repeated some days after to Schulen- 
burg, adding to it a wicked word. As Schulenburg 
wished to make him fear that the king might take 
the part of his abandoned daughter-in-law: "I will 



378 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

arrange everything in such good order, that she will 
not dare to complain."-'*' 

However, Frederick, like his sister Wilhelmina, saw 
day succeeding day, and nothing come to pass which 
could give him the least hope. After he had the sorrow 
of being present at the marriage of his sister, he felt that 
his time was now approaching. He fought against it. 
Ko doubt, one of his reasons for his repugnance to the 
Princess of Bevern was, that her House was not illustri- 
ous enough; she was, in his eyes, a beggar, like Baireuth. 
He would much prefer not marrying at all, said he to 
Grumbkow; but if they were absolutely determined to 
marry him, why could he not espouse, instead of a niece, 
one of the daughters of the Empress? He would be con- 
tented with the second; provided she had "a dot of some 
duchies." Another time, he talked of marrying Anne of 
Mecklenburg, grand-daughter of Ivan, on condition that 
she would renounce the throne of Russia, and bring him 
a dot of two or three million of roubles. But all these 
were expedients, and ways of talking for the sake of 
talking. At the end of a letter in which he treats of a 
marriage with a daughter of the Emj^ress, he puts a 
po8t-8criptuin : ''No, I will never take a wife, even 
were it from the hands of Madam, the Princess of Bai- 
reuth." He became more and more exasperated against 
the Bevern princess, saying that he knew very well that 
she was ugly, heavy as a log, and half dumb. He re- 
peated that, if they forced him to marry her, he would 
banish her as soon as he was master. ^^'^ 

At this time. Prince Eugene, seeing that the sojourn 
at CUstrin was soon coming to an end, resolved to make 



THE MARRIAGE OF FREDERICK. 379 

fast the bonds of the intrigue with which he had enveloped 
the King of Prussia and his son. The latter part of Janu- 
ary, 1732, he sent instructions to Seckendorff, which re- 
sembled the plan of a campaign. Seckendorff must move 
secretly, hide from all others except Grumbkow the part 
that he took in the work of this marriage, to have the 
appearance of not interfering at all, to give the queen no 
excuse for denouncing the Emperor to the Court of 
England, with whom it would be necessary to deal cau- 
tiously; for it had not yet renounced the marriage of 
Frederick with an English princess. HoAvever, things 
must be quickly done; arrange "as soon as possible," 
the first interview between the Crown Prince and the 
Princess of Bevern, and then " without the loss of a 
moment's time, proceed to the marriage." It was of the 
highest importance to gain the confidence of the prince, 
but it must be done without the king's knowledge, who 
might take offense at this step. For this, he had better 
concert with Grumbkow. He was not to lose an oppor- 
tunity of saying and repeating to the prince that his 
imperial majesty had for him and for his House a par- 
ticular predilection. But no doubt w^ords alone would 
not be sufficient: the best way of being agreeable to the 
prince would be to aid him, in his need of money. His 
imperial majesty put then at the disposition of Secken- 
dorff a sum of from 2,000 to 2,500 ducats, that he must 
extend to the prince, at several different times, with 
the greatest prudence, with "the strictest secrecy;" 
for no one must be in his confidence, except the 
prince and Grumbkow. ^'^' 

At the receipt of these orders from Field-Marshal 



380 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

Prince Eugene, General Seckendorff, who had skillfully 
led the first operations of the siege, made ready for the 
assault. 

It was precisely at this date, in the beginning of the 
year 1732, that the letters of the king to his son became 
more amiable; he gave him a horse, and announced he 
was going to send him a service of silver, knives, forks, 
spoons, dishes, candelabrums, "enough to laden an 
ass." ^^^ As the prince was sick, his father was very much 
interested in his recovery. In the meanwhile, he talked 
of a good establishment, gutes Etahlissement and 
promised that he would soon give him reasons to be very 
contented. These repeated letters, these unaccustomed 
tones, these largesses, must have put the prince " in ag- 
ony." He was also, at that time, troubled with the 
idea of a journey that he had to make to Berlin, to offer 
salutations to the Duke of Lorraine, who was expected. 
First, he had fear that this prince, the affianced of Maria 
Theresa, would have but a mean opinion of this miser- 
able Court, just returning from those of France and 
England. He dreaded it much more on account of meet- 
ing his father again. "Far from Jupiter," he said, "far 
from the thunder." He went so far as to feel a tardy 
affection for Ciistrin, even to wish "to remain here 
longer, living in perfect peace. " On the 4th of Febru- 
ary, 1732, at midnight, he was awakened by a courier, 
who brought him a letter from the king. This letter, 
at this unusual hour, could only announce grave news. 
It began with a formula which the king never employed: 
"My dear son Fritz; " ordinarily he only said: "My 
dear Son." " Fritz " was a burst of tenderness, added 
to all the preceding indulgences: 



THE MARRIAGE OF FREDERICK. 381 

Potsdam, February 4th, 1732. 
My Dear Son Fritz: 

I am very much rejoiced that you have no longer need of 
medicine. You must take good care of yourself yet for some 
days, on account of the intense cold, for I and all here are indis- 
posed from rheumatism. So watch yourself well. You know, 
my dear son, that when my children are obedient I love them 
tenderly. When you were at Berlin, I pardoned you with all 
my heart, and, since that time I have thought of nothing but 
your welfare and to establish you well, not only in the army, 
but with a suitable daughter-in-law, and have you married while 
I am still living. You can rest assured that I have had the 
princesses of the country examined by others, as well as pos- 
sible, through reports of their conduct and education. . . Now, 
the Princess of Bevern, the eldest, has been found good and 
modestly reared, such as all women should be. You must tell 
me your sentiment immediately. I have bought the house at 
Katsch, w^hich will be for the Field-Marshal Governor ; I will 
rebuild (for you) the house of the Governor and furnish it. I 
will give you enough to carry on the expenses of your house- 
hold and, in the month of April, I will send you to the army. 
The princess is not beautiful, but she is not ugly. You must not 
speak of this to any one, but write to your mother and tell her 
that I have written, and if you have a son, I will let you travel. 
The nuptial ceremony will not take place before next winter. 
In the meantime, I will seek occasions sometimes to show you 
honor, and I will thus learn to know you. She is a being who 
fears God, and that is everything. She will demean herself as 
well with thee as with her parents-in-law. May God bless this 
union! May He bless you and your successors! May He keep 
thee a good Christian, and have thou God always before thine 
eyes, and do not believe in the damnable faith of a Particular- 
ist, and be obedient and faithful, then all will go well for thee 
in time and eternity. And the one who desires this with all his 
heart says: Amen. Thy faithful father unto death, 

"F. W." 

" If the Duke of Lorraine comes, I will send for thee. I be- 
lieve that thy betrothed will come here. Adieu. God be with 
you." -S3 



382 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

THE DOUBLE TLAY OF THE CROWX PEIXCE. 

In reading this masterpiece of endearment, this j^ropo- 
sition of marriage, followed by the information that the 
house would soon be ready for the newly married couple, 
this portrait of the princess, in two morsels, separated, 
so as to better swallow them, by the promise of a jour- 
ney, after the birth of the first-born; finally, in the Post- 
/Scripticm, the word betrothed, with the announcement 
that the young girl will perhaps come, and he also may 
be called, Frederick comprehended that everything was 
arranged, decided, settled. He wrote then to his 
father, " in all submission," that he would not "fail to 
obey his orders ;" he wrote to his mother, as the king 
had commanded ; but he sent at the same time a very 
short note to Grumbkow, in which he called the princess 
"a vile creature." The note finished, he again took 
uj:) the pen: "P. S. I am sorry for the poor soul, for 
with all this, there will be one more unhappy princess in 
thcAvorld." 

He began a vigorous correspondence. The king hav- 
ing announced that the marriage would not be before 
winter: " We have time midtiun,^^ wrote he to Grumb- 
kow. Tavo days later he repeated liis promises of sub- 
mission to the minister, but he called the princess the 
corjnis delicti/ he requested that they would at least give 
her a second education, and charged Grumbkow "to 
work this affair." He did not wish to have a stupid 
woman, who would enrage him by her silly remarks, and 
whom he would be ashamed to bring forward; he would 
like better for her to be a . . . . He hated hero- 
ines of romance; he also feared a too virtuous person, 



THE MARRIAGE OF FREDERICK. 383 

and, rather than a devotee, with a hypocritical smile and 
a half-dozen bigots at her heels, he would j^refer the great- 
est .... of Berlin. Let them teach the j^i'in- 
cess verbatim ^'L'Ecole des Maris, ^^ (School for Hus- 
bands); and ^'JOEcoledes Femmes,^^ (School for Wives). 
This will be better than Yrai CJwistianisme (True Chris- 
tianity) of the late John Arnd. If she can still dance 
on one foot, teach her music, and to become rather too 
bold than too virtuous. But if she is stupid, let her go 
to the devil. The prince assured Grunibkow that he 
would much jjrefer to marry Mademoiselle Jette, with- 
out ancestors or advantages. Now Mademoiselle Jette, 
was Grumbkow's own daughter, and he, on comparing 
this passage with the preceding, did not relish much this 
impertinence of grand seignior to vassal. ^^* 

Grumbkow tried to calm the prince. He rej^resented 
to him that the Princess Elizabeth was a peaceful, mod- 
est person, and that wives of this kind are the ones that 
give the least cause of disturbance to their husbands, 
whether they be great lords or simple folk. "My 
very dear general" responds Frederick, " I will believe 
you on every other subject outside of woman, al- 
though I know that you perhaps have known some- 
thing of them in past time. ... I firmly j^ersist 
in my sentiment, and one would have to be a great 
philosopher to prove to me that a coquettish woman 
has not many advantages over a zealot." Grumbkow 
was not discouraged. He pictui*ed Frederick's be- 
trothed to him, avoiding, designedly, a flattering por- 
trait, so as to give Frederick the agreeable surprise 
of findino' her better than he imao-ined her to be. He 



384 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

reported the conversations of the king, full of prom- 
ises; the king will give his son time "to know the 
person in question;" before deciding, he will give him 
back his confidence, and treat him, not as his son, 
but as a friend ; he will give him a separate household; 
for, "I comi^rehend," said his majesty " that we must 
not always be together, and that it will be something 
new for us, when we meet again," briefly, he will 
do everything in reason and kindness, and, if he is 
content with the conduct of his highness, he will 
give him occasions to travel and know the world. ^^^ 

The king was ignorant of the correspondence of the 
prince with his minister, and held him- to the first 
declaration of obedience. As soon as he saw the be- 
trothed, he was "infatuated;" he wrote to his son in 
praise of the young girl and guaranteed that she 
would please him; in consequence of which, he an- 
nounced that he would proclaim the marriage as soon 
as the prince arrived in Potsdam. Frederick answered 
that he was charmed with the picture his father sketched 
of the princess, but even if she had been otherwise, he 
would submit to the paternal will. The king, on receipt 
of this letter, was touched. He showed it to the Prince 
of Bevern, father of Elizabeth, and to Grumbkow. 
"Here," said he to the latter personage, " read. . . . 
What think you?" — "Well, Sire," responded Grumb- 
kow, "what do you say to this obedient son ? What 
more can you wish ?" Frederick William replied with 
tears in his eyes: "It is the happiest day of my life." 
Then the king repaired to the adjacent chamber with the 
Prince of Bevern, to embrace him at his ease. Grunib- 



THE MARRIAGE OF FREDERICK. 385 

kow came to the conclusion, at this moment, that the 
prince was at last resigned. Everybody was in a good 
humor at Potsdam; the queen herself was gracious to- 
wards Bevern. After dinner she had the coffee served 
in her Holland house in the park. Grumbkow reassured, 
found the betrothed very nice indeed and did not scru- 
ple to confess it to the prince: "I must acknowledge 
she has changed greatly to her own advantage, and 
that the more one sees her, and the more one be- 
comes accustomed to her, the prettier one finds 
her .... and if she gains more flesh, and her 
form becomes rounder (and there are already signs of it) 
she will be very seductive." -^"^ 

Two days after he had related to Frederick the joy of 
the king and the satisfaction of all the family, Grumb- 
kow received in his turn a letter from the prince in 
which he named his ^ficfucee "the abominable object of 
his desires," and declared flatly that he would never 
marry her. Neither hope of peace, his rights, nor for- 
tune would make him change his mind. "It is only 
exchanging one unhappiness for another." He wished 
to marry for himself, not for the king. His father 
should reflect, as a good Christian "if it is well doing to 
force people to obtain divorce, and to cause all the sins 
that a badly assorted marriage makes one commit." 
Frederick urged Grumbkow to come to his aid: "If 
there are honest men in the world, they ought to think 
of saving me from the most perilous step that I have 
ever taken in my life." If he were abandoned, he would 
take counsel from himself alone: " I have been unhappy 
all my life, and I believe it is my destiny to remain so. 



886 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

Let come what will. I have nothing with which to re- 
proach myself, I have suffered enough for a crime of in- 
discretion, and I will not engage myself to extend my 
atfliction indefinitely. I have still some resources, and 
the snap of a pistol can deliver me from my trouble and 
life. I believe that the good Lord will not condemn me 
for it, and will have pity upon me instead, and in ex- 
change for this life, give me salvation." ^^ 

Grumbkow was struck with amazement once more — 
(again he fell from the clouds) ; he felt the danger of 
his double play: *'How is it?" wrote he to the 
prince, ''that while your royal highness agrees with 
the king in everything, you are in despair, and wish me 
to turn the course of affairs, a thing which would 
cost me my head ? No, my lord, blood is thicker than 
water. ... I am not obliged to ruin myself and 
poor family, for love of your highness who is not 
my master, and whom I see rushing to his own des- 
truction. I fear God too much to attach myself to a 
prince who wishes to kill himself without any reason 
whatever. . . . My lord, you may have all the 
intelligence possible, but you do not reason like a 
good man and a Christian, and, beyond that, there is 
no salvation." He tried to excite his compassion for 
the queen, and to frighten him in regard to his own 
fate. "I will never forget what the king said to me 
at Wusterhausen, when your royal highness was at 
the fortress of Ciistrin, and I desired to take your 
part: 'No, Grumbkow, think well on what I am 
going to say: May God will that I may be deceived, 
but my son will not die a natural death; mav God 



THE MARRIAGE OF FREDERICK. 387 

will that he die not by the hand of the executioner.'" 
Grumbkow brought his epistle to a close by "declar- 
ing that he withdrew entirely from the prince's af- 
fairs; he bestoAved " his blessing " on him, and quoted 
the words of Solomon: "a prudent man foreseeth the 
evil, and hideth himself; but the simple pass on and 
are punished." At the same time, he wrote to Wolden, 
that he left it to his care, "to clear up the trouble" 
and took his very humble farewell of the society "not hav- 
ing enough spirit to have his head cut off with a good 
grace." He excused the marshal from answering him, 
and requested that he (the marshal) would dispose his 
royal highness to forget him entirely. ^^^ 

These letters arrived at Ciistrin, just as Frederick, 
who had been notified from Potsdam, was making ready 
to depart. Grumbkow expected a renewal of " the old 
scenes." He expressed his anxiety to Seckendorff; the 
prince is not master of his passions ; they will betray 
him; the seven wise men of Greece would not be 
capable of appeasing father and son. But Grumbkow, 
who thought he knew his Crown Prince so well, 
was deceived ; everything passed oif in the best 
possible manner. Frederick arrived at Potsdam the 
26th of February. Two days after, the king officially 
asked of the Beverns the hand of their daughter. 
The king gave to his son, a beautiful watch set with dia- 
monds, enclosed in a handsome jewel-case, to present to 
the princess. He also ordered taken from the royal 
treasury, a wedding ring, valued at 24,000 thalers one 
of his own father's jewels, which he had kept for the be- 
trothal ceremony. The Crown Prince appeared at his 



388 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

ease. He said to Grumbkow, it is true, that he could 
never love the princess, but that he had no aversion to 
her, that she had a good heart and he wished her no 
harm. With Seckendorif, he was gracious and "open- 
hearted." He showed that he was perfect master of him- 
self. Even in a letter to his sister, two days before the 
betrothal, he did not tell his thoughts except in veiled 
words: "The person is neither ugly nor beautiful, not 
lacking intellect, btit very badly educated, timid, and 
lacking much in the ways of good-breeding. You 
can judge by this as to whether I find her agreeable or 
not." 

March 10th, 1732, the ceremony of betrothal was sol- 
emnized. As they exchanged betrothal rings, the eyes 
of the prince were suffused with tears. He received the 
customary congratulations, then moved back several 
stejDS, and began talking with a young lady of the Court, 
without again glancing at his Jiancee.'^^^ 

PROM THE BETROTHAL TO THE MARRIAGE. 

Prince Eugene came forth conqueror in the first en- 
gagement, but the battle was not yet won. With a 
fiance like Frederick, promises were not yet marriage. 

Seckendorff, while maneuvering like a docile and 
clever lieutenant, feared that they had made a bad busi- 
ness of it. He was convinced that, if the king died be- 
fore the nuptial ceremony, the Crown Prince would 
regain his liberty. Then suppose the marriage accom- 
plished, the prince would only resign himself to it in or- 
der to have the license to lead afterward a dissolute life. 
"And he will blame the Emperor, and altogether the 



THE MARRIAGE OF FREDERICK. 389 

consequences will be bad." He disapproved the jji-e- 
cipitation with which they had carried on the affair. 
AVhy did they not allow the red spots on the prin- 
cess' face (she had just recovered from an attack of 
small-j^ox) time to disappear? In this manner, the 
crafty minister took every precaution to appear inno- 
cent of the intrigue of which he was the main leader. 
He even pretended to place obstacles in the way: 
" Neither the king, nor anyone will be able to accuse me 
of being urgent in this affair, either directly or indi- 
rectly. The king has recently spoken of it to me. I 
advised him not to be in such great haste." He did not 
fail, to make known to Frederick, through Grumbkow 
the good service he had thus rendered him.-"° 

Prince Eugene, howcA'er, was full of confidence. He 
gave new instructions: to obtain from the king the 
promise that he would thereafter treat his son better, and 
tell the prince that he owed to Seckendorff and Grumb- 
kow this happy change in the paternal humor; to form 
the Court of the newly wedded pair, " of faithful ad- 
herents," — on whose sincerity one could absolutely de- 
pend, and who would give to the prince "only honor- 
able principles, conforming to the imperial interests, — 
who would be attached to Grumbkow and Secken- 
dorff." The Princess Elizabeth, on her side, will 
know how to gain, little by little, the love of her hus- 
band, particularly if she will assume "a more open man- 
ner," "a gayer humor." The mind of the prince is still 
flexible ; the bad impressions which have been given 
him by the evil-disposed will disappear. In the mean- 
time, they must afford him every pleasure, through 



390 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

money and other means. " AYitli these light, uncertain 
dispositions, it is necessary to enter into their passions, 
so as to make yourself agreeable to them, and then you 
can manage them usefully afterwards." All this seemed 
very easy to Prince Eugene. He already saw the Crown 
Prince penetrated "with ideas capable of strengthening 
the friendship of the two royal and imperial Courts, " and 
imbued with sentiments of respect and love for his im- 
perial majesty and the august archducal house. He 
concluded that affairs would end much better than could 
be imagined from the beginning ; but the marriage must 
be hastened, every means possible must be used, auf 
alle thunliche Weise, for the health of the king and his 
manner of living was always cause of much anxiety; and 
then general affairs might take another turn It is there- 
fore very desirable to obtain from the king a fixed date, 
but there must be no appearance of haste, nor of a wish 
to uroje him.^^^ Prince Eusjene left it to the skillfulness 
of Seckendorff and Grumbkow, whom he never separated 
from one another: he always said, "Grumbkow and 
you." 

Seckendorff obeyed to the letter. He took much 
trouble to form the future Court of the prince. He 
thought to give him for Marshal, Count Schulenburg, 
and this candidate was discussed at length by Grumb- 
kow, Prince Eugene and himself. From Vienna, Eu- 
gene sent objections; Seckendorff and Grumbkow re- 
sponded from Berlin. They ended by agreeing that the 
old general was the honest man that was needed, and a 
good Imperialist, (/ut JcaiserlicJi gesinnt', but Schulen- 
burg declined the ofiice. Woklen remained then in his 



THE MARRIAGE OF FREDERICK. 391 

rank of Marshal near Frederick. As he was insignifi- 
cant, Seckendorff and Grumbkow were reconciled to 
him. They succeeded in sending Natzmer away, the 
political confidant of the prince, his accomplice in for- 
bidden pleasures, notably his "love affair;" but their 
greatest success w^as the appointment of Madame von 
Katsch to the dignity of First Court Lady to the be- 
trothed princess. Seckendorff "placed his greatest 
hope" in this lady, because she was clever, full of 
goodwill, and capable of exercising "a healthy influ- 
ence" over the prince. As she would receive from 
Bevern and from the king but the sum of 100 thalers, 
he proposed to Prince Eugene, or, as he said, " to the 
enlightened sense of his most princely highness," to 
give to the First Lady of the Court a pension from 1,000 
to 1,200 florins, by means of which she would be able to 
live, "and would be entirely won over to the imperial 
interest." 

Seckendorff also counted upon Madame von Katsch to 
form the manners of the Princess Elizabeth, and he pro- 
posed to aid her in this to the best of his ability. He 
was glad that the Beverns had to leave the Court in about 
twenty days after the betrothal ceremony, to return to 
Wolfenblittel. The princess could then commence her 
new education. The prince complained that she danced 
"like a goose." Seckendorff sent to Dresden for a re- 
nowned master, to teach her to dance like a human be- 
ing. He trusted that the betrothed would improve in 
her appearance. " She really has as fine features as any 
one may wish to see. She is well formed. Her facial 
beauty will soon return; the last spots that the small-pox 



392 FREDEKICK THE GREAT. 

left are going away, and lier bust will develop witli her 
years." 

Unluckily, Frederick became very restless. "His 
principal defect," wrote Seckendorff "is dissimulation and 
falsity. One can not trust liim except with the greatest 
precaution. His most ardent passion is sensuousness. 
They say that the strength of his body is not suffi- 
cient to sustain him in his evil desires, and that he 
seeks in "gallantries" a vain glory, rather than the 
gratification of a vicious passion. He does not lack 
intelligence, but there is but little solidity in him. 
He is more preoccupied in forming a hon mot than 
telling facts." Seckendorff thought, as did Prince 
Eugene, that the best way of winning his highness Avas by 
giving him money ; but they must go to work with 
great prudence. In the palace, valets cle chamhre, 
lackeys, and pages, had their orders to give a faith- 
ful report to the king of all they saw and learned, 
"under penalty of losing life, honor, and reputation." 
If they saw a supply of money, this extraordinary 
event would not fail to put them on the alert. 
And the prince was also very capable of expending 
this imperial subsidy on his mistresses instead of pay- 
ing his debts. There were many difficulties in the 
way: Seckendorff overcame them to the best of his 
ability. He had an understanding about everything 
with Grumbkow; he always said: "GrumbkoAv and I," 
or "I and Grumbkow." They hoped at last that to- 
gether that tliey would be able to efface "the bad 
impressions which had been given to the prince about 
honest ])eople ; " and "to lead him, tlirough God's 
aid, into better paths. "^^^ 



THE MAKRIAGE OF FREDERICK. 393 

There remained but one thing now to satisfy Prince 
Eugene, and that was to obtain a date for the mar- 
riage, but, in spite of all attempts, the king was in 
no hurry. It may be that he hesitated, as usual, 
before the accomplishment of an act Avhich bound 
him to Austria, or perhaps he did not know 
what he wanted. The date was fixed several times 
and postponed: fifteen months elapsed between the be- 
trothal and marriage, filled with events. 

The two accomplices passed through great apprehen- 
sion. The marriage of the Crown Prince was always 
considered in Europe a political affair of the most su- 
preme importance, and England disputed with Austria 
for the future King of Prussia. Degenfeld, who had noti- 
fied the Court of London of the betrothal ceremonies of 
Frederick and the Princess Elizabeth, wrote that the 
English nation was "terribly piqued." He had under- 
taken to play the opposing part against Seckendorff and 
Grumbkow; he put on an air of great importance, and, 
on returning to Berlin, entered into favor with the king. 
He soon hazarded propositions: the Prince of Wales 
could marry one of the daughters of the King of Prus- 
sia, and Frederick, the Princess Amelia. Grumbkow be- 
comes uneasy, although the queen speaks to him of the 
Bevern marriage as if it were already accomplished, and 
promises to take the best care possible of her daughter- 
in-law. She even affects sympathy for Elizabeth: "She 
has not the ways of the world yet, but has a very good 
presence and the rest will come ; " however, Grumbkow 
knew well that the queen hoped for "the amendment ;" 
he had no confidence in her, and he had reason. '^^ 



394 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

In reality, the queen detested her future daughter-in- 
law, and continued to wish for the English marriage 
In the intimacy of her little Court, she freely ex- 
j^ressed herself about the Beverns; her children knoYing 
that it would please her, imitated the princess. In the 
month of August, 1732, Wilhelmina being at Berlin, 
Frederick obtained permission to visit her there. As 
the king was absent, the tongues were given full sway 
At table, the queen, speaking of the bride elect, said 
to Wilhelmina: "Your brother is in despair at having 
to marry her, and he is right. She is a stupid animal; 
to everything that is said to her she answers with a 
'yes' or 'no,' accompanied by a silly laugh, which 
makes one sick." Upon which, the Princess Charlotte, a 
lovely girl, whose heavenly blue eyes were half hidden by 
blonde curls, interrupted the conversation to say: "Oh! 
your majesty does not yet know all her accomplish- 
ments. I was present one morning, at her toilet. I 
thought I should suffocate. She smelled like carrion. 
I noticed she had a very bad form. Her skirt was 
padded on one side and one of her hips was higher 
than the other. . . ." This was said before the do- 
mestics, and made the Crown Prince "change color." ^^* 

If Seckendorff and Grumbkow had only been sure of 
the king! But he himself kept them uneasy. "God 
knows whether we have not as much at stake as our ad- 
versary," wrote Grumbkow on the subject of the English 
propositions. He saw his master pass through all the 
emotions, "fear, despair, rage, impatience;" sometimes 
crying out the health of the Emperor at table: Floreat 
Augustissimus ; and then again being very much flat- 



THE MARRIAGE OF FREDERICK. 395 

tered by the advances of England and multiplying tlie se- 
cret interviews with Degenf eld. Grumbkow was furious, 
for he held this Degenfeld to be but a mean politician, 
and was humiliated to think that men like Seckendorff 
and himself were vanquished like the Philistines of the 
olden times "by the jaw-bone of an ass." The king, of 
course, spoke of the contracted marriage, as if it had al- 
ready come to pass. At the news that Madame von 
Wreech was enceinte and that the Crown Prince w^as ac- 
cused of it: "This gives me pleasure," he said ; "he 
will give that many more to the Princess of Bevern," 
but he did not hasten to conclude the ceremony. "He is 
very capable," said Grumbkow, "of consulting no one but 
himself, and doing the contrary of that which one ad- 
vises him to do." Nor was Seckendorff at heart feeling 
more reassured. He saw the king, on receiving the let- 
ters of congratulation from the Emperor on the betrothal 
of the Crown Prince, "kiss them devoutly." "Grumb- 
kow and I," wrote he to Prince Eugene, "will neglect no 
opportunity to push forward the marriage secretly unter 
der Hand zu jyous^iren; " but he knew very well that his 
majesty would not be led by the nose, and, after all 
would only do whatever came into his head.-^' 

However, Seckendorff and Grumbkow tried to see 
which one could best circumvent the Crown Prince. A 
correspondence was established among these three per- 
sonages (who hated and had a contempt for one another), 
full of spirit, reciprocity, gocd will, and cordiality. 
Seckendorff began the placing of the Augustissimus 
ducats soon after the betrothal. 

"A true, zealous, servant of your royal highness,'' 



396 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

wrote he to the prince, ' 'has so much at heart the restora- 
tion of harmony in the royal family, that he cannot help 
warning your royal highness that all care must be 
taken to preserve it, and, for fear that during the sojourn 
at Clistrin, a few debts could not be prevented, it will be 
absolutely necessary to liquidate them, before it comes 
to the knowledge of the king, who would believe, if 
he knew it, that the money had been misused. A 
beginning will be made by extending to your royal 
highness 500 ducats, to be used toward paying the 
debts. But, as it will create surprise if they are all 
paid at once, the prince will have the prudence to pay 
but a part every month, and make his most intimate 
friends believe that this payment comes from the 
money that he saves from what the king gives him 
for his monthly allowance, and from the revenues of 
his regiment." 

Seckendorff explains after this the way to proceed 
about it. The bearer of the letter is a trustworthy 
man, a faithful servant of Grumbkow, and will not 
awaken suspicion, for they are in the habit of seeing 
him bring books to the prince. His highness must tell 
him to go for the answer ; the man will return, j^lace a 
package upon the table and go away. His highness will 
have the kindness to "break" the present note and 
give a few torn pieces to the bearer of the ducats. 

Frederick was delighted with this aid which was a 
godsend to him. " The book that you have obligingly 
sent me," wrote he to Seckendorff, "is charming, I 
send you in this envelope the song you have requested," 
— that is to say the fragments of the broken letter. 



THE MARRIAGE OF FREDERICK. 397 

He assured^his dear general that although he could 
say "but few words" he was none the less with much 
consideration of affection and esteem, his most perfect 
friend and servitor. 

On sending the "second relay," Seckendorff said to 
the prince that if his highness approved of the manner in 
which it was extended to him, he could always be served 
in this way. The prince approA^ed, and the exchange of 
letters and songs continued. Seckendorff made an 
advance of 2,000 florins to the prince in order to pay 
for the great recruits that came from Austria. The 
prince, who knew this sum would never be reclaimed, 
presented his thanks. His letters became more and 
more "gracious and amiable." He acted "with his 
dear general" as with a true friend. After he had eaten 
uj) the 1,300 ducats that his father had given him to 
pay for new recruits, he sent his creditor to Seckendorff. 
He paid and even passed the limits that Prince Eugene 
had suggested; he asked for instructions from Vienna, 
but he was of the opinion that it was best to do the 
thing on a large scale. When the prince is married, 
said he, the king will not give him more than 12,000 
thalers a year, Avith which it will be simply impossible 
for him to live. The 2,500 ducats of imperial pension 
will not be a sufficient supplement. If they do not wish 
to abandon the Crown Prince, they must give him a 
pension of at least 6,000 ducats, taking the precaution 
to declare to him, that beyond this sum, he need 
expect nothing from his imperial majesty. If they 
prefer to lend instead of giving, "the prince will have 
no scruples in making a written agreement, but they 



398 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

would have more glory and it would be better for the 
future for them to exact nothing." ^^^ 

Seckendorff would perhaps have ended in believing 
that it would be possible to win Frederick, had he 
not known of the letters the prince wrote to Grumb- 
kow. Frederick, Avith the assurances that his position 
gave him as the heir of a sick king, j)oured out his con- 
fidences into the ear of the other ' ' dear general. " ' ' They 
wish to force me to fall in love," wrote he to Grumbkow 
on receipt of a letter, Avherein the king reproached him 
for not Avriting oftener to his Dulcinea; "but, unluckily 
not being of the nature of an ass, I very much fear that 
they will not succeed." He acknowledged that he did 
not write often to the princess, but it was "because he 
lacked subject matter and was many times at a loss to 
fill up his page." He recalled to mind that they had 
"proposed this marriage to him nolens volens, and that 
liberty was the price of it." Then he becomes angry ; 
he suspects that the paucity of his correspondence 
as a lover has been denounced to the king, by his future 
mother-in-law whom he calls "that coarse tripe-wo- 
man, the duchess," and whose "proud ^/b;?#a7i(7e "* he 
wishes that God will strike. He repeats the declarations 
already made upon the conduct he is going to maintain 
after marriage. He is going to marry like a "gallant 
man," that is to say, to allow Madame to act as it seems 
good to her, and on his side to do as he pleases, and 
"long live liberty." He hopes that the king will not 
meddle with his affairs after the nuptials, or else the 

*A fontange was a kaot of ribbon worn on the top of the head-dress in 
the seventeenth century. It was so-called from the name of the first 
wearer, the Duchesse de Fontanges.— Translator. 



THE MARRIAGE OF FREDERICK. 309 

princess will suffer for it. "Marriage renders me of 
age, and as soon as I have reached that point, I am 
sovereign in my own house, and the king has nothing 
to do with it; for, no woman ought to be in the gov- 
ernment of anything. ... A man who allows 
himself to be ruled by women is the greatest coward in 
the world." Finally, he confesses all his sentiments in 
regard to women, ''as he thinks before God." He 
"loves the sex, but with a fleeting love, only the 
desire for pleasure, and, after that, contempt." He is 
"not of the metal of which good husbands are 
made." He is enraged at becoming one at all, but he 
makes a virtue of a necessity. For the tenth time he 
threatens: "I will keep my word, I will marry, but 
after it is done, then good bye to Madame, and the right 
path." 

However, he decided to write to his betrothed, and 
also to the Prince of Bevern, his future father-in-law. 
The latter took the prince's compliment seriously and 
thanked him. "The duke sends his thanks," wrote 
Frederick to Grumbkow, ' ' as if I were a man very 
much fascinated with the graces of his daughter; he adds 
a panegyric on the high esteem which I have already 
shown her and pays me compliments like a tavern-keeper. 
All that I have just said has had so much of an effect upon 
me, that, desiring his supreme happiness, I would wish 
most earnestly that the Emperor of Morocco would fall 
in love with this princess through the reputation of her 
charms, carry her off and marry her. To be Empress of 
Morocco is worth twice as much as to be a Crown Prin- 
cess of Prussia. You can judge after this whether I am 



400 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

a Christian or not, or whether I do not wish all the good 
in the world to hapj^en to those who have caused me sor- 
row, ... I can not comprehend how one can be 
so good. . . ." ^^^ 

Seckendorff began again to doubt when he read these 
letters. He was in great haste to complete the contract. 
The king fixed for the date of the marriage January 
15th, 1733: " God will that we may be therel" wrote 
he to Prince Eugene. ^^^ The intrigue of the reconcilia- 
tion with England still disturbed him. He has not yet 
suspected, but he is soon going to find out that Vienna 
entered into this intrigue and worked to break the Bev- 
ern marriage. 

THE AXGLO-ArSTRIAX IXTRIGFE. 

The Emperor had been reconciled with the maritime 
Powers, since the year 1731.^^^ He had obtained from 
them one of those treaties for the guarantee of the Prag- 
matic Sanction, for which the Secretary of State, Bar- 
tenstein, knew so well how to negotiate, and in which 
nothing was lacking and nothing was valid. He wished 
to be on good terms with his new friends, having need of 
their support against the house of Bourbon, whose 
designs on Italy were not disguised. He was, besides, 
preoccupied in the Polish succession, the opening of 
which was expected and led, as everyone knows, to great 
trouble in Europe. Now England requested of the 
Emperor, among other gratifications, to aid her in mar- 
rying the Prince of Wales to a Prussian Princess. It 
was very difficult for the Court of Vienna to undo the 
work that had been so laborious ; however. Prince Eugene 



THE MARRIAGE OF FREDERICK. 401 

had begun by prescribing redoubled caution to Secken- 
dorff ; lie gave him to understand more and more clearly 
the necessity of managing England. 

In the month of April, 1732, the King of Prussia had 
an ardent desire to see the Emperor, who was going on 
a trip to Carlsbad. Prince Eugene, notified by Secken- 
dorff, was very much embarrassed. "This visit," he 
responded, "will be greatly commented upon both in Eng- 
land and elsewhere. Try to thwart his plan, doing it 
in the most secret way, without having the least appear- 
ance of doing so. If you do not find the means, make 
no opposition; declare to the king, on the contrary, that 
it will be very agreeable to his imperial majesty, (who 
considers him the most precious of his friends,) to 
embrace him." But the king was determined: " I will 
certainly go and see the Emperor," said he; "it is neces- 
sary for me to know him personally ; nothing (fan pre- 
vent me." Prince Eugene had to yield: "Assure his 
majesty," wrote he, at last to Seckendorff, "that his 
imperial majesty will feel a great pleasure in becoming 
personally acquainted with him. As for me, nothing in 
the world could have happened more agreeably than this 
so much desired opportunity, of expressing, by word of 
mouth, my most submissive devotion to his royal 
majesty." The interview actually took place the latter 
part of July, in a castle of Bohemia. The Emperor 
arranged matters so that it would be as insignificant as 



le.""" 

The Court of Vienna was soon obliged to give a posi- 
tive proof of her good will to England, who persisted 
in desiring at least a Prussian Princess for the Prince of 



402 FKEDERICK THE GREAT. 

Wales. She consented to enter into a very complicated 
plot. 

Before the betrothal of the Crown Prince with Eliza- 
beth of Bevern, a marriage had been arranged between 
Charles, a brother of this Princess, heir-apparent of Bev- 
ern, and the Princess Charlotte, sister of Frederick. 
Austria and England decided that Charles of Bevern 
should renounce the hand of Charlotte, and receive, in 
exchange, that of the Princess Anne of England, while 
Charlotte of Prussia should marry the Prince of Wales. 
Prince Eugene made known the combination to Secken- 
dorjff. The latter who, every day, for several years, had 
been employed in exciting the bad feelings of the King 
of Prussia against England, was dismayed by this com- 
munication: "Of all the very high commissions with 
which his imperial majesty has charged me, I have 
never yet found any as difficult as the one his highness 
has transmitted to me on the subject of changing the 
marriages." He immediately sought Grumbkow and 
told him of the astounding news. 

Grumbkow had been out of temper, for several weeks. 
The return to the offensive by England, the renewing 
of the projects that he had regarded as definitely buried, 
and the important air of Degenfeld troubled him. 
He pretended that he wished to go away. "The good 
God," said he, "will surely point out to me a 
haven where I can retire from this drudgery." Tie 
still interested himself a little in affairs, "but it 
was to close the mouths of others," rather than 
to serve his master. He was worn out Avith the 
father and the son: "I do not believe there are 



THE MARRIAGE OF FREDERICK. 403 

two other people in the world equal to them." He 
bluntly told Seckendorff " that he was disgusted with 
his majesty." "The king, dined here with me like a 
wolf, supped the same way, drank to excess and went off 
at midnight." Grumbkow was in this state of mind, 
when Seckendorff apprised him of the order from Vienna 
to sustain the English propositions. This "capped the 
climax." To ask Frederick William to work for the 
reconciliation of the Emperor and England, was treating 
him like a knave indeed. The king, said Grumbkow, 
"is not such a fool as they think. He will quickly see 
at what they are aiming." Then God knows what he 
will do! He is liable to break off .all the marriagec, 
that of the Crown Prince with Bevern, as well as that of 
Charlotte, Grumbkow would not meddle with the 
affair; he "withdraws his hand from the table." He 
even has honest scruples: ' ' I am not one of these men who 
blow hot and cold with the same breath; I would 
rather die than advise my master to do a thing contrary 
to his honor." Besides he wishes to keep "the little 
that remains for his poor family." He was so angry 
that he forgot, at the close of his letter, where lie 
declared his proud propositions of a loyal servitor, that 
he had expressed, at the beginning, his true sentiments: 
"I am disgusted with this Court," he had said, but added: 
"I am not with yours." And he asked for the reward of 
his good services. Modest as he was, he was not ambitious 
for great promises: "the least gift (douceur) that you will 
accord to me on your part will give me more pleasure 
than all the most far reaching hopes." "^'^^ 

Seckendorff was of Grumbkow's opinion about this 



404 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

strange, sudden change of his Court, but lie was obliged 
to execute the orders he had received. His colleague ad- 
vised him to present the thing, in a jesting way, and not 
to insist, if the master became angry. One day as he 
seemed to be favorably inclined towards him, Secken- 
dorff risked an insinuation, but the king was first "dis- 
turbed," then "confounded." Seckendorff represented 
that this proposition proved the sincere desire of the 
English to become reconciled with him, and that no one 
would lose in the combination. ' ' The Princess Charlotte 
would become Princess of Wales, heiress to a crown and 
Charles of Bevern would marry the eldest of the prin- 
cesses of England." "But," replied the king, "what 
would my dear Empress say to this, to whom the mar- 
riage will give so much pleasure? And Bevern? And 
Charles? What would they think at such a change of 
things?" He, however, desired a few days for reflection. 
As usual, he could not keep from seeking to draw some 
advantage from this new condition of affairs, but reflec- 
tion only exasperated him the more. He imagined that 
England wished to compromise and "prostitute" him. 
He believed it to be a new intrigue of the prince, who, 
happily, was not within reach, and of the queen, whom he 
treated with the greatest harshness. It was she no doubt 
and his son who were leading this masquerade to catch 
"Amelia " again. "Very well," said he, "since they are 
so changeable, the Crown Prince shall not marry at all. 
I have yet three sons. I would rather see the destruc- 
tion of my whole house. Then at least it will per- 
ish without censure of having changed the next day from 
what it desired the night before." 



THE MARRIAGE OF FREDERICK. 405 

Never, and it is not a small thing to say, had he been 
seen in such a rage. He waited to be cured of the gout 
to fly to Potsdam, there to take refuge, where he never 
more wished to see anybody. All business was sus- 
pended. ^^^ 

Upon these contradictions, Bevern, the father, whom 
the Court of Vienna had not deigned to take into her 
confidence, did not knoAV what was going to become of 
his children, and wrote to the king to say, that he was 
paying no attention to what the malevolent dared to cir- 
culate in the world: " With divine assistance," said he, 
''we will see, in the month of June, my dear Elizabeth 
in the arms of the Crown Prince, and my eldest born, 
my dear Charles, will enjoy the fascinations of the ami- 
able Princess Charlotte." The king sent a tender 
response. He assured him that he had "acted in the 
whole affair with the sincerity of an honest man," and 
that he (the king) would persist in it and was even anx- 
ious to hasten the nuptials. He wrote, in post-scriptu'm 
himself: "I have the gout, but I am true to you and 
yours even unto death. It must be quickly ended. 
This is my modest opinion. "^^^ 

At last, to rid himself of importunities he made a 
great scene in the Tabagie'. "No," cried he, looking fix- 
edly at Grumbkow, "I can bear it no longer! To wish 
me to do a cowardly act! I! I! No! Never! Cursed in- 
trigues! The devil take them! To wish to make me out a 
scoundrel !" And he said that if he was sick, this was the 
cause of it, that it was eating his very heart out and it 
would finally kill him. Grumbkow was congratulating 
himself upon not being compromised in this venture. 



406 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

He was triumphing over the ill success of the Anglo- 
Austrian intrigue, and over the king, his master, who, 
after having desired to put him aside, now had recourse 
to him. "I know absolutely nothing about it," said he 
to the king, "but I can not comj^rehend your uneasi- 
ness, your majesty!" He kept a "regular and even 
temper" during this storm, and began again: "Why is 
your majesty so agitated? I do not understand what 
you mean, but your majesty is the master. You have 
honest men around you. . . ." " Yes, yes," replied 
the king, and little by little he allowed himself to be 
calmed by Grumbkow. So this minister was again in 
favor, but he feared or pretended to fear that the king 
would never pardon Seckendorff, of whom he had 
spoken insinuatingly in his burst of anger. Seckendorff 
repaired as well as he could the awkward mistake imposed 
upon him. He threaded his way carefully through an 
interview that his friend contrived to give him with the 
king. By degrees Frederick William restored him again 
to his good favor; he actually accepted an invitation to 
dinner. "At table, I hope that we shall make our peace," 
wrote Seckendorff to Prince Eugene, who was a little 
ashamed that "the mine missed lire," and recommended 
his agent to dp everything to re-establish his and Grumb- 
kow's reputation at Court. ^"^ 

Affairs took up again their course towards the mar- 
riages of Charles of Bevern with Charlotte of Prussia, 
and the Crown Prince with Elizabeth of Bevern. 

THE MARRIAGE. 

The Crown Prince had some inkling of these intrigues 
and of these tem})ests. He certainly hoped to gain by 



THE MARRIAGE OF FREDERICK. 407 

them but be remained quiet. His correspondence con- 
tinued witb tbe two dear generals, as if notbing unusual 
was passing. He bad not enougb expressions of grati- 
tude for Seckendorff, and bis imperial majesty, wbo 
sbowed bim so mucb kindness. Tbey had at Vienna tbe 
happy idea of giving a pension to poor Duban, wbo was 
still in disgrace and poverty. '<Itis an action," wrote 
tbe Crown Prince, "worthy of tbe magnanimity and 
generosity of tbe Emperor." He professed bis faith as 
a good imperialist: "I will make it a rule to show on 
all occasions, and as much as my duty will permit, tbe 
attachment and tbe high veneration that I have for tbe 
Emperor personally, and this more through report of 
bis eminent qualities, than through regard for bis exalted 
position." ^''^ He asked nothing better than to contract 
new debts, as be would be sure to ]3ay them. "But, 
sir," added he, "there still remains another party to 
succor; my dear sister of Baireuth, whose very sad con- 
dition, cuts me to the heart. For the love of God, let 
there be some way of ameliorating her lot through tbe 
king! She has bad very advantageous promises given 
her in bis own hand-writing, but it has gone no further." 
" Through tbe king," was a delicate manner of express- 
ing it: Seckendorff understood this new appeal to the 
Emperor's purse. The prince himself put in good con- 
dition by these kind proceedings, led to this benevolent 
physician those wbo were suffering witb tbe same mal- 
ady, — that is to say, — lack of money. ^"^ 

Of course he claimed for himself the most care, being 
tbe principal invalid. Tbe king sent him to Brunswick, 
to his betrothed, without offering " to make good" bis 



408 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

expenses. "I admit," wrote lie to Seckendorff, " that I 
am very much embarrassed, finding myself short of 
cash. Here I acknowledge frankly, my dear friend, that 
you could draw me out of the difficulty, by lending me 
a certain sum." A short time after this another demand. 
The prince had quite caught the tone of an accomj^lished 
borrower. To be sure he could address himself to others: 
"But I would much rather trust in you, knowing you to 
be one of my best friends, than to any other." How- 
ever, he would repay, as soon as he Avas able to do so, — 
when he was married, but he nevertheless would always 
be under great obligations to his very dear friend. 
Seckendorff responded in the tone of a skillful creditor. 
He called his packages of money a little aid, an allow- 
ance, a compensation. He had pretty schemes for sending 
it. The money will be sent to a maitre de poste in a 
box of Spanish tobacco, addressed to the initials S. A. 
R.* The prince is requested not to be disturbed about 
the repayment: "There need be no haste, for the lender 
only asks a recognition proportionate to the interests 
of the house." He never answered by a refusal, he 
had the appearance always of anticipating the requests. 
The king becomes restless. Grumbkow thinks him 
in imminent danger of becoming insane, so incapable is 
he of supporting a trouble. Does he not speak of abdi- 
cating and retiring to Verona, because they give him 
some disturbance in regard to recruiting ? Neither is 
Seckendorff satisfied with Frederick William's health. 
He seemed to be very well in the spring of 1783, and 
had a good color, but his hearing does not return, his 

* "Son Altesse Royale." Frencli for His Royal Highness.— Translatoe. 



THE MARRIAGE OF FREDERICK. 409 

leg is swollen, he has bad nights, his blood is excited ; 
to be brief, his majesty could be taken off in twenty- 
four hours; it is absolutely necessary to gain the prince. 
At the same time that he confided his uneasiness to 
Prince Eugene, he addressed to Frederick a recapitula- 
tion of the imperial favors, but in a very discreet way. 
He promised him others; they will do more for Duhan, 
whose condition is already improved. They will "do 
everything in the world for the consolation of the wor- 
thy Crown Princess," they will see if they cannot find 
near the Empress a few thousand florins for her. They 
will do other things if it is necessary: "Happy are 
those who have the good fortune to be esteemed by your 
royal highness. They will never be neglected by the 
imperial Court, because everyone knows that your royal 
highness only likes those people who have merit." 
Briefly, the prince can count upon the Emperor's assist- 
ance until the good God will change for the better his 
royal highness' position," which means, — when the 
king dies. Then, they are convinced that the prince will 
be, like his father, a friend to the Emperor. "The union 
and perfect good understanding between the houses of 
Austria and Brandenburg have procured, for more than 
ten years, such reciprocal advantages, that his imperial 
majesty will see with pleasure, your royal highness con- 
tinuing in these salutary principles for the public good." 
Seckendorff, by dint of repeating the anthem, ended 
in believing it. He found the prince charming, truly 
grateful for what had been done for himself and sister, 
really very cordial, treuherzig. He hoped not only that 
Frederick would acknowledge "the price and utility 



410 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

of the very high imperial grace," but that the Princess 
of Baireuth would also act in the same sensible manner 
as her brother. Naturally Wilhelmina showed her grat- 
itude also ; flatterer, that she was, she promised that the 
Crown Prince, two years after his marriage, would have 
just as much love for his wife, as he then had aversion 
for his betrothed. Seckendorff still had some doubts,^**^ 
but he allowed himself to be persuaded. Were it only 
through egotism, through a refusal to confess to himself 
that all his trouble at this Court had been useless, he had 
to believe in definite success. 

Nevertheless the Crown Prince continued to indicate 
to Grumbkow alarming inclinations. At the hour of 
departure for a visit to his betrothed, he laments: "I do 
not feel great impatience for the trip to Brunswick, 
knowing already in advance what my mute will tell me. 
It is, however, her best quality, and I agree with you 
that a silly fool of a wife is a blessing from heaven. In 
short, I will play in the Brunswick comedy so that there 
will be nothing lacking." In the meantime, he was 
studying compliments for this visit by going to the wild- 
boar hunt, for "between Westj^halians and swine (the 
Westphalian being born and reared among swine), there 
was no difference." Then followed facetious remarks 
upon the presents that the poor girl sent to him, — 
Brunswick sausages and a porcelain snuff-box: "My 
23rincess has sent me a porcelain snuff-box, which, on 
opening the package I found broken, and I do not know 
whether it is to mark the fragility of her. . . , — of her 
virtue, or of the whole human body. I have taken it 
for a very bad sign, for a broken snuff-box, according to 
the occult philosophy of Agrippa, signifies illicit love."^*^^ 



THE MARRIAGE OF FREDERICK. 411 

Notwithstanding, Frederick was resigned. He strug- 
gled no longer, and the day fixed for the marriage would 
have arrived without any obstructions in the way, if the 
Anglo-Austrian intrigue had not interfered once more. 
England did not let go her hold. She must have Fred- 
erick now for one of her princesses. When the marriage 
day of the prince was fixed and published, she exacted 
a new effort from the Court of Vienna. Kow the King 
of Poland died February 1, 1733; Louis XY. declared 
that he would defend with all his power the freedom of 
the elections in Poland, and would consider a violation 
of this liberty as an attempt at the peace of Europe. 
Austria, who was under treaty with Russia, to jorevent 
the election of Stanislas Lecszinski, felt the approach of 
war. She had need of pleasing the London Cabinet; 
Prince Eugene ordered a new step to be taken by Seck- 
endorff with the king. This time Austria and England 
left Charlotte to the Prince of Bevern, but offered to 
the Crown Prince the hand of Amelia of England. 

The order reached Seckendorff on the morning of 
the 11th of June, at Salzdalum in Hanover, where the 
ceremony was to take place. The two families had been 
together since the day before. Seckendorff, on reading 
the letter of Prince Eugene, was seized with terror. He 
was obliged to obey, and that immediately, but what 
was going to pass between the king and himself? He 
hurried to Grumbkow, and read him the dispatch, and 
asked a way to acquit himself of it. Grumbkow pointed 
out to him the dangers of this irrational proceeding, 
but he preached to a convert. Seckendorff told him so 
and claimed his aid. The old accomplice refused for 



412 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

general jiolitical reasons and individual interest. He did 
not understand how Austria could employ herself in 
placing an Englishwoman upon the throne of Prussia; 
but after all it did not concern him: that which did 
regard and touch him, was the necessity where, in order 
to triumph over the politics against which he had 
always fought, he would have to humiliate himself 
before the faction of the other ministers, and expose 
his poor family to ruin and his neck to the knife. 
All that he could promise, to show his absolute devo- 
tion to his imperial majesty, was not to compromise 
the proposition, if the king asked his advice. 

Seckendorif had to venture alone. He said to the 
king that he was charged by the Emperor, with an im- 
portant communication, but not a disagreeable one. 
The king who was still in bed gave permission for him 
to enter. Seckendorif approached the bed, and with a 
smile uj^on his lips, told the king that he had received, 
by courier, a few moments since, the order to open 
propositions to him upon a very grave subject; he, how- 
ever, dared not acquit himself of his commission, if his 
majesty would not promise him to listen with patience, 
and not become angry. The promise given he laid the 
affair before him. The king controlled himself and 
responded: "If I did not know, — if I was not sure of 
your being an honest man, I should think I was dream- 
ing. If you had spoken in this way, three months ago, 
I do not know Avhat I might liave done through affection 
for his imperial majesty, although it is contrary to liis 
interest and mine that my eldest son should marry an 
English princess; but now I I am here with the queen I All 



THE MARRIAGE OF FREDERICK. 413 

Europe knows that the marriage will take place to-mor- 
row. You see, this is the English artifice again, to 
make me pose before the world, as a man without honor 
or faith." 

As, after all, the king still remained calm, Secken- 
dorff, (no doubt very much astonished,) took up the 
thread of conversation again, and held it for some time, 
submerging in a flood of words the strange proposition. 
He acknowledged that he really was not of the opinion 
of his imperial majesty, that the two kings of England 
and Prussia should be closely united, but the welfare of 
Europe, and, particularly, the Germanic country, exacted 
this union, to which his imperial majesty sacrificed the 
advantage of his own house. The king continued to 
listen ; Seckendorff said that he had upon his person a 
letter from Prince Eugene to his majesty, and a copy 
of this letter. According to his instructions, he should 
read to his majesty, with his permission, this copy; 
if the king thought that he could not accept the orig- 
inal, Seckendorff would not deliver it. The king, 
after having heard the reading, said that he had no 
scruples in accepting and answering it. SeckendorfP 
then gave him the original, and began his discourse 
again. He represented that the animosity between 
England and Prussia would be greatly increased, after 
the king had repulsed this polite proposition. It is 
true, said he, that all the preparations are made for the 
marriage to-morrow, but he suggested a way not to 
lose everything and conciliate all parties. Instead of 
the Crown Prince and the Princess of Bevern, they 
could marry Charles of Bevern and Charlotte ; then, 



414 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

later, they could celebrate the nuptials of the Prince 
of Wales with the Princess of Bevern, and the Crown 
Prince with the Princess Amelia. 

Frederick William let this effrontery pass, perhaps 
because while listening he was seeking once more a 
means of fishing in this troubled water. He opened 
the letter from Prince Eugene, and then returned it 
to Seckendorff, with the order to give it to Grumbkow 
and tell him the import of the response, that no ad- 
vantage in the world would induce him to decide to 
stain his honor and forfeit his word. Nevertheless, he 
asked nothing better than to be on friendly terms 
with England. To please the Emperor, he would give 
to the Prince of Wales one of his daughters. He 
would even take an English princess for his second 
son, if England would elect him Prince of Courland so 
that he would be in a position to take care of his wife. 
Upon which, he took farewell of Seckendorff, telling him 
that he had executed the orders he had received like a 
man of honor. 

Seckendorff repaired to the ministers, who wrote out 
the response. When they brought it back to the king, 
he gave full vent to his anger. Again he accused the 
queen and Crown Prince of complicity in the intrigue, 
and he sent Grinnbkow to them to demand an explana- 
tion of it. The Crown Prince swore that he was inno- 
cent. He added that he could not comprehend at all 
the conduct of the Court of Vienna; as for him, — and 
he requested Grumbkow to tell the king, — that death 
alone would prevent him from keeping his word to the 
Princess of Bevern. ^^^ 



THE MARRIAGE OF FREDERICK. 415 

Upon this assurance, tlie day ended tranquilly. That 
evening, there was, at the Court, a pastoral play; the 
Crown Prince played the role of a peasant-lover; Apollo, 
who unexpectedly arrived, gave him the prize. The next 
day, June 12th, the marriage was celebrated. At noon, 
the young husband wrote to his sister: "My dear sister, 
the ceremony has just been performed, and God be praised 
that it is all over." ^^° 

There was "one more unhappy ^^rincess in the world." 

Elizabeth of Bevern did not merit this destiny. The 
testimonies of her contemporaries are all favorably 
inclined toward her; even the much-to-be dreaded sister- 
in-law, the Margravine of Baireuth is not very severe on 
her: "The Crown Princess," said she, " is tall; her form 
is not slender: she brings her body forward in such a 
way that it gives her a very bad carriage. Her com- 
plexion is of a glaring whiteness, and this fair skin is 
relieved by a high color. Her eyes are of a pale 
blue, not promising much intellect. Her mouth is 
small. All her features are small, without being beau- 
tiful, and the whole expression of her face is so 
petite, so infantile, that one would think that her head 
belonged to a child of twelve years. She has ash-colored 
hair which curls naturally, but all her beauty is spoiled 
by her black, uneven teeth. She does not know how to 
deport herself, nor has she the slightest idea of how to 
turn an expression, having much difficulty in making her- 
self understood; one is obliged to guess at what she 
intends to say, which is most embarrassing." ^^^ 

This portrait is completed by a few traits given in a 
letter to Grumbkow from his daughter. It states that 



416 FKEDEKICK THE GREAT. 

the betrothed princess was very timid in public, and 
before her mother; "When she is with her mother, she 
does not open her mouth, and blushes every time they 
speak to her, which shows that she is guarded very rig- 
idly; and she has no liberty whatsoever, not even to 
receive ladies in her chamber. ... As for me, 
I had the honor of speaking with her at an assembly, 
where she was alone and at her ease; I can assure you 
papa, that she does not lack either spirit or judgment and 
that she argues upon everything in a very pretty manner, 
and is pleasing and appears to have a very good disposi- 
tion. She is exceedingly fond of diversion. ... I 
can not say she has much style, she is too loose in her car- 
riage. ... If she had some one to tell her this, it 
would change her very much. . . ." The princess 
liked Berlin, and hoped to return soon and "wished" 
for the day of her marriage. ^^^ 

A sad picture of a poor girl, neither ugly, nor stupid, 
who was reared by severe parents; child-like, deli- 
cate, pretty, and timid, and only asking to be re-assured, 
caressed, loved; and she was worthy of being loved, 
but life to her was going to be a long melancholy one, 
borne with the resignation of a saint and the dignity of 
a heroine. 

In the history which Ave have just related, one person, 
alone is interesting: it is this unhappy bride. 

The trio. Prince Eugene, Seckendorff, Grumbkow, 
were villainously ugly. The gravity of Eugene and Seck- 
endorff gave to their hypocrisy a comical solemnity. 
Grumbkow was at least in good spirits; he half confessed 
his cynic philosophy and frankly refused to endanger 



THE MARRIAGE OF FREDERICK. 417 

his head and the welfare of his poor family; but, like 
the two others, he spoke the language of "Tartuffe." 
God is the common resource of the three personages; 
when a thread of the intrigue threatens to break, Secken- 
dorff recommends it to God. All three boast of their 
Christianity, and they always have at their tongues end 
the word "honesty." Eugene and Seckendorff agree that 
if they attain their end, they owe it, '"to the honesty of 
Grumbkow alone, Grumbkoirs EhrUchlxtity They owe, 
but they jjay. Grumbkow received the little '■'douceur'''' 
that he hoped would be given him, — 40,000 ducats, — 
besides his annual pension of a thousand. " If any man 
in the world merits a favor, it is he" said Seckendorff, 
in the plan of the budget he proposed to Prince Eugene. 
In this budget, Grumbkow figures in singular com- 
pany. Before him come the Crown Prince, and the 
Margravine of Baireuth specially recommended, for if 
any one is capable of instilling in her brother good 
"principles" it is this princess. After which, come the 
porter Eversmann, the confidential man of the king, who 
receives from Austria an income of 100 ducats, and 
Reichenbach, former minister of the King of Prussia to 
London. "With Reichenbach, his imperial majesty has 
reason to be very contented," said Prince Eugene "because 
he has worked to maintain and increase the misunder- 
standing between the two Courts of Berlin and London." 
These consciences were sold cheap. Reichenbach began 
by a salary of 600 thalers in 1731; he had 900, in 1733. 
It is true, that, if he is obliged on account of his zeal in 
the service of the Emperor, to leave that of the King of 
Prussia, he has promise of finding a good welcome in 



418 FREDEKICK THE GREAT. 

Austria and a position of privy councillor; but Prince 
Eugene wishes that Reichenbach will not retire from 
Prussia until reduced to the last extremity, until that 
friendship which exists between the Emperor and the 
king assures him of advancement in Prussia. ^^^ 

This is the very acme of perfidy. 

Prince Eugene, Seckendorff and Grumbkow com- 
plained of the "dissimulation" of the prince, — of his 
" falsity." The most piquant thing is that they judged 
this deceitfulness by the favors that they showered upon 
Frederick. " He must be a hypocrite," said Secken- 
dorff, "to write to Grumbkow in such obliging terms." 
But the Crown Prince, who knew them well, paid them 
back in their own coin. He knew the wickedness of his 
enemies, and at the same time, their folly, for, if it was 
odious to dispose, unceremoniously of these couples of 
young peo2:)le that they married and remarried, — and to 
practice, in Christian Europe, a trading of princes and 
princesses, it was ridiculous to give themselves the 
trouble of these lies and all this stratagem, to assure them- 
selves of the person of the Crown Prince. Grumbkow 
and Seckendorff watched the progress of the develop- 
ment of the betrothed's form, Seckendorff procured a 
dancing master for her, old Prince Eugene wished that 
she" had a more artless manner, etioas freieren Humor, 
so that she would attract and retain " in the very high 
imperial interest," the one who was going to be Freder- 
ick the Great. What nonsense! 

As to the King of Prussia, he maliciously married his 
son. He wished to get rid of him as he did Wil- 
helmina, but if it was his right as father and king to 



THE MARRIAGE OF FREDERICK. 419 

interdict any marriage that would injure the interests of 
the crown, this forced marriage was an odious act of 
paternal tyranny. 

The Crown Prince is very much to be pitied, since he 
espouses through force, a woman that he does not love; 
but who would pity him? Neither the intrigue of which 
he is the victim, nor the impossibility of striving against 
a brutal omnipotence, excuses the absolute submission 
expressed to the king by him, and at the same hour, his 
request to Grumbkow to resist for him. Not once, 
either by speech or letter, or by the most timid insinua- 
tion, did he allow the king to see his true sentiments. 
The cause w^as certainly worth the trouble. It did not 
concern him alone; it also concerned a woman; but the 
prince thought he must first marry, and then he would see 
afterward. In the sequel, he also counted upon aveng- 
ing himself on the Emperor, but, in the meantime, he 
takes the Austrian gold and asks for more; he is meek 
in his letters to Seckendorff; he humbly expresses his 
gratitude toward the Prince of Savoy, and his admira- 
tion for the grand qualities of the Emperor. 

He talked much, while this crisis of the marriage was 
pending, and his words have been preserved; we have 
many letters that he wrote. Not one of the lamenta- 
tions he utters comes from the heart. He rails, he 
ridicules wonderfully well; I would rather see him shed 
tears. The day of his betrothal a tear did come to his 
eye. I should rather wish it to have been from sorrow, 
but I can not believe it. If one could only consider that 
his mockery of love, his obscenities upon marriage, 
so painful to hear from the lips of so young a 



420 FKEDERICK THE GREAT. 

man, were only the ways of turning a phrase, imi- 
tations of France or Italy, reminiscences of theatrical 
erudition! But, apart from the style and the borrowed 
French manner of treating serious things, there yet 
remains an alarming something, which emanates 
only from him. One must not handle the French 
raillery excej^t with precaution. In the dramas of 
Moliere, to which Frederick refers his betrothed, there 
is upon the subject of love and marriage, a seriousness, 
even tears; this, it seems to me, he did not see. 



CHAPTER VII. 



COXCLUSION. 



The 27tli of June, 1733, the Crown Prince and the 
princess were solemnly married at Berlin. Before the 
K(3penick gate, were assembled for the annual review^ four 
regiments of cavalry, eleven regiments of infantry, and 
the corj^s of Hussars. The princess who was in an open 
carriage with the queen, was a spectator of the various 
exercises; the king, who was riding on horseback near 
the carriage, explained them to her. All the army defiled 
before the royal party and then the cortege, composed 
of sixty carriages with six horses attached to each, 
entered the city. 

A few weeks afterward, the Crown Prince set out for 
Neu-Ruppin, (a little town situated ten miles from Ber- 
lin, where he was established in April, 1733, two months 
before his marriage,) and there took command of the 
regiment of infantry that his father had given him. In 
the spring of the following year, his father presented him 
with the estate of Rheinsberg, situated near the Meck- 
lenburg frontier. The prince immediately ordered the 
work of repairing the castle, which was in ruins, and the 
gardens, which had been abandoned for a long time. He 
prepared the residence where he was to wait, "until God," 
as Seckendorff said, "would change his condition." 

He will be very happy at Rheinsberg; he was so 
already at Neu-Ruppin. For the first time, he felt that he 

421 



422 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

was at home, far from " Jupiter," and he had a taste, in 
virtue of the adage; Procul a Jove, procul a falmine^ of 
the feeling of perfect security. He arranged his way of 
living very much as he liked, and this life apj^eared good 
to him. He called Neu-Ruppin the ' ' dear garrison. " 

Frederick is entering upon a new period of life; we 
will soon follow him I hope; but the reader no doubt is 
of the opinion that we have already learned much about 
the personality of the Crown Prince. 

This young man is handsome, refined, and delicate; 
the excessive fatigues, heavy wines, coarse nourishment, 
and the uncouth vulgarisms that his father loved, were 
repugnant to him. His taste was directed only toward the 
pleasures of the intellect; his inquiring turn of mind is 
interested in everything. Some say to-day that he was 
an "intellectualist." 

The religious beliefs make no impression upon his 
soul. At twelve years of age, he writes his "Manner of 
Living of the Prince of a Great House," which is entirely 
evangelical; at fifteen, he signs himself "Frederick 
The Philosopher." God and religion are soon to be for 
him but obliging terms of royal phraseology. 

He has no kind of morality. At fourteen, be, fore- 
seeing the death or confinement of his father, plots with 
the foreign ministers, to whom he makes such confidences 
that they dare not trust them to writing. He is in 
friendly intercourse and intimacy with governments that 
the king considers his enemies. The abominable treat- 
ment that he received does not excuse his conduct; his 
conduct on the contrary partly explains his father's cru- 
elty. 



CONCLUSION. 423 

He has no generosity. The word generosity is not 
once pronounced, not even by those witnesses of his life, 
who judge him with the greatest benevolence. He loves 
his mother and sister, but they think and intrigue with 
him. He loves his friends, and goes so far as to speak 
of them in a peculiar tone of ardent tenderness, but 
friendship is not merited until a return of sacrifices is 
made for the joys which spring from it. Would Fred- 
erick have shown the same devotion to his friends, if 
they had claimed it ? When he saw Katte pass by him, 
on his way to the scaffold, he offered, in order to save 
him, to relinquish his crown, and even to die; but sev- 
eral weeks after the tragedy, sure of living and released 
from his prison, he is "as gay as a lark." 

He appears to have felt for a moment a sentiment 
which resembled love, but his heart was not entirely 
given up to it; it is the head of a scholar, of a young 
man of letters which furnishes the rhetoric and the jjoetry 
of his declarations to Madame von Wreech. He feels no 
pleasure in the comjjany of women; he does not love 
them. He only wishes pleasure, "enjoyment," and after 
that, he "despises" them. The ideal wife that he 
described nearly resembles a public character. Love with 
this young man is but a vice; or perhaps merely a pre- 
tention to vice. A close observer of his actions states 
that he was very temperate. Fredei'ick's manner of 
talking and thinking on this subject of love then, is a 
result or an indication of his moral deformity. 

Frederick grew up in the midst of strange surround- 
ings, in a tumult of villainous passions, in the company 
of ministers and valets sold to others besides their mas- 



424 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

ter, in an atmosphere of gossip, of spying, and intriguing 
in the uncleanliness of a Court where perhaps the only 
honest man was the king. He never felt out of place. 
With the most crafty, he played a finer role, he was 
more deceitful than any of them. In the crisis of his 
marriage he alternates between refined lying and the 
audacity of giving expression to everything. Assuredly 
the tyranny of his father and the detestable example of 
his unhealthy environments were calculated to corrupt 
him, but nature had predestined him to be a master in 
the art of duping men. 

He dissimulates so well that he hides from all the 
world a certain Frederick within him, that his father 
longed for and would have adored. He calls his uniform 
a shroud; when his father constrains him to learn his 
calling of prince in the Chamber of Domains at Cilstrin, 
he aifects in his letters such an extraordinary amount of 
zeal, by means of such extravagant expressions, that the 
king can not help suspecting his hypocrisy. He would 
have been confirmed in this sentiment, if he had known 
in what a disdainful tone the prince was speaking of 
economy and treated of 

"La chambre et les commissaires 

Qui font le metier des corsaires." 

The truth, — which is shown later, — is that the prince 
is an excellent colonel, and manages his regiment as well 
as any of them; that the lessons of Major Senning upon 
military art were given to a mind the most capable of 
loving, comprehending, practicing and surpassing them; 
that "the young aiiscidtator''^ of the Chamber of Ciis- 
trin has quickly comprehended all "economy." He is 



CONCLUSION. 425 

sure to possess the art of reigning, and dreams already 
of the means of applying it to the detriment of others. 
He sees the whole future of politics and war, his whole 
reign and the whole destiny of Prussia. 

He drew a large profit from the cruelty and despotism 
of his father. Half by nature and half by boastfulness 
he glided into a dilletantism; for a prince, heir to 
such a State, he loved his books, his flute and his 
dressing gown too much. He dressed and arranged 
his hair petit maitre style, did not carry himself well, 
drifted along, was unconstrained. Undoubtedly the 
soldier and the man of State which, in him awaited the 
hour, would have met, had chance not willed, that 
Frederick, nearly upon the morrow of his accession, 
had to put into motion his innate and acquired pow- 
ers. It did not find him in complete readiness. His 
first victory was a singular adventure; he fled from 
the battle field of Molwitz, so quickly and so far 
that he only learned the next morning of the victory 
carried off by his infantry, which his father had drilled 
and which did not know how to fly. From his own 
avowal, he is instructed in the school of his own faults. 
Would he have been surprised, by the flying hour of 
opportunity, if he had not employed his youth in 
reading poetry and playing duets with his sister Wil- 
helmina? 

The resemblance to his father, that he concealed 
and denied, appears when he becomes master. Fred- 
erick William is represented in Frederick II., but 
Frederick II. has the genius, which was lacking in 
the father, and we have perceived the first rapid, 



426 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

short flashes of it. He has intelligence and a taste 
for letters and the problems of philosophy. The 
"Muses" charm and console him, and make him think 
and sj)eak of life like an ancient sage ; they contribute 
to the strength of his mind. We have found in this 
young man a combination of epicurean and stoic which 
will again be discovered in the king, and this together 
with his genius, his virtues as a prince, his defects and 
vices, his contempt for all law, the cynicism of his 
perfidy, the sensibility of a humanitarian and yet the 
inhumanity indispensable to leaders of men, all coming 
from the head, not the heart, will unite to form — 

The Great Frederick. 



END. 



NOTES. 



1. Due de Broglie, Frederic II. et Marie Therese, vol. I., pp. 

30 and 43. 

2. I propose to publish a history of Frederick, from his mar- 

riage to his accession. This second period of his life is 
very different from the first: Frederick, nearly free, 
intermingles politics with the study of philosophy and 
literature. He seizes upon ideas and plans. It is 
the awakening of the reign. 

3. Among these works, the most remarkable is that of Herr 

Reinhold Koser, Friedrich der Grosse als Kronprinz. 

4. This brochure is not to be obtained. I herewith express 

my thanks to Her Excellency, Mme. von Borcke, who 
kindly sent me a copy. 

5. I mention this edition as it is the easiest to procure. I 

have said, in the course of this book, how far and with 
what precaution these Memoirs can be used. I intend 
to resume this subject in a critical dissertation. 

6. Albert Waddington, The Acquisition of the Croivn of 

Prussia by the Hohenzollerns, pp. 272 et seq. 

7. Preuss, Friedrichs des Grossen Jugend und Thronbe- 

steigung, pp. 4 and 5. 

8. Letters of Frederick I. of January 30, 1712, in the Miscel- 

laneen zur Geschichte Konig Friedrichs des Grossen, p. 
435 and of February 8, and May 31, 1712, in Preuss, 
Friedrich der Grosse, mit seinen Verwandten und 
Freunden, p. 380. 

9. See Fassmann, Leben und Thaten des Allerdurchlauch- 

tigsten und Grossmdchtigsten Konigs von Preussen 
Friedrici Wilhelmi, the funeral ceremonies of Fred- 
erick I., pp. 42 et seq, and Fcirster loc. cit., pp. 71 et seq. 

10. Koser, Friedrich der Grosse als Kronprinz, vol. I., p. 2. 

11. Koser, op. C2Y.,pp.2-5; Bratuscheck Die Erziehung Fried- 

richs des Grossen, pp. 20 et seq. 

12. Upon Duhan, see the academical eulogy that Frederick 

made to him, Works of Frederick the Great, vol. VII., 
pp. 8 et seq. 

13. Upon Naude, see Formey, Eulogy on the Academicians of 

Berlin, vol. I., pp- 270 et seq. 

427 



428 NOTES. 

14. Upon La Croze, see Formey, op. cit., II., pp.63 et seq., and 

the letter of Frederick to Voltaire, Works of Frederick 
the Great, vol. XXI., p. 327. 

15. See, vol. XVI., of the Works of Frederick the Great, the 

correspondence of Frederick with " dear, good Mamma" 
Rocoulle, and the following note in verse, written by 
Mme. de Rocoulle, after the accession of Frederick, (she 
was then 82 years old): 

Sur Vair: Mariez-moi. 

Gaudias est un bon soldat, 

Mais il hait le celibat. 

II vient vous prier 

De le lui accorder. 

II voudrait se marier 

Pour vous faire un grenadier. 

16. Waddington, pp. 283 et seq. 

17. Bratuscheck, p. 2. 

18. See, upon Fink and Kalkstein, Friedrich Cramer, Zur 

Geschichte Friedrich Wilhelms und Friedrichs II., 
pp. 39 et seq. I have only at hand the 2d edition of this 
work (Leipsic. 1833). 

19. See, upon Anhalt, the article in the Allgemeine deutsche 

Biographic, and Carlyle, History of Frederick the sec- 
ond, called Frederick the Great, book IV., chap. ii. 

20. The Instruction of Frederick I. (1695) is in Forster pp. 77 

et seq. ; the Instruction of Frederick William (August 
1718), in Cramer, pp. 3 et seq. Upon the comparison of 
the two documents. Forster, pp. 354 et seq. 

21. Forster, chapter already quoted, Friedrich Wilhelm I. 

als Kronprinz. 

22. The regulation which follows is posterior to the Instruc- 

tion. I quote it here, because it ends in giving an idea 
of the way in which Frederick William wished his son 
reared. It is published in Cramer, pp. 20 et seq. under 
the title: Das Reglement, wei mein dltester Sohn Fried- 
rich seine Studien zu Wusterhausen halten Soil. The 
date given by Cramer (October 4, 1720) is corrected by 
Koser, pp. 6 and 7, and the Appendix, p. 223. 

23. Ranke, Zwolf Bllcher preussischer Geschichte, vol XXVII., 

of the Sdmmtliche Werke, p. 80. 

24. Forster, chap, quoted, Friedrich Wilhelm I., als Kron- 

prinz. 

25. Memoirs of the Margravine of Baireuth, 3d edition (1888), 

pp. 6, 7, and 17. 



NOTES. 429 

26. Ranke, loc. cit., p. 82 and note 1. Letters of Frederick to 

his father, July 27, 1717 ; February 25, October 7, U, 21, 
1719; June 11, October 8 and 31, 1720; July 12, and 
A ugust 25, 1721, in the Works of Frederick the Great, 
vol. XXVII., 3d part, pp. 3 et seq. 

27. Cramer, pp. 25 and 26 ; the quotation at the end is in Ger- 

man. 

28. This note, in French, is in Cramer, following The way the 

Prince of a Great House Should Live. 

29. The note of Duhan and the marginal responses of the 

King are in French. Cramer, pp. 51-3. 

30. Bratuscheck, p. 27, and note 46, p. 113. 

31. Tagebuch Heinrichs de Catt {Publicationen aus den K. 

preussischen Archiven), p. 404. 

32. The reign of Frederick William I, still awaits an historian. 

Professor Schmoller has treated of the most important 
part of the administration of this prince (cities, com- 
merce, industry, finance, the army and colonization), in 
some very profound matter from which several excerpts 
have been published, notably the Preussische Jahr- 
biXcher, the Zeitschrift fur preussische Geschichte und 
Landeskunde, the Deutsche Rundschau, the Jahrbuch 
fur Gesetzgebung. Verwalting und Volkswirthschaft 
im deutschen Reiche. See, upon all these works, an 
article signed R. K. (Reinhold Koser), in the Historische 
Zeitschrift, vol. LVII, p. 488. 

33. The instruction is in Forster, vol. II, pp. 173 et seq. See 

Ranke, pp. 168 et seq. 

34. These prescriptions upon the dinner are in a Cabinet 

order, Forster, II., 255. 

35. The quotations in this part of the chapter, with the ex- 

ception of those borrowed from Ranke, are taken from 
the ordinance. 

36. Upon the army during the reign of Frederick William, 

see Schmoller's article {Die Entstehung des preussischen 
Heeres (1640-1740), in the Deustche Rundchau (XII, 

1877). 

37. He consented to wait until March; he wrote then at the 

bottom of the order to send the woman and child: 
" Hurry; now it is good weather." Forster, II, p. 300. 

38. Conversation at table reported by La Chetardie, French 

Minister at Berlin, Archives of the Ministry of Foreign 
Affairs of France, Prussia, December, 24, 1735. I will 
henceforth indicate the documents borrowed from these 
Archives thus: F. A., and the date of the day and year. 



430 NOTES. 

The volumes of the diplomatic correspondence of the 
Archives of Foreign Affairs (France) bear the date of 
the year on the back. When the documents are taken 
from a Supplement, mention will be made of it. 

39. Analysis of the Cantonreglement of 1733, in Forster, 

vol. II., p. 309. 

40. Ranke, p. 159. 

41. The Instruction for the Crown Prince, on his repairing to 

the army, is given in Forster, I., pp. 397 et seq. 

42. Sauveterre, Charge 'd Affaires of France. F. A. Prussia, 

March 25, 1732. 

43. Royal Order to the Chiefs of the Regiments, February 10, 

1738 Forster, II., 315. 

44. Dispatches from Rottenburg, F. A., Prussia, Feb. 19, April 

31, May 14, Aug. 13, Oct. 15, 1726; Jan. 18, June 1, 1727; 
from Sauveterre, March 2i, 1730; from La Chetardie, 
Jan. 4, 1734; Nov. 29, 1735. 

45. Dispatches from Rottenburg, F. K., Prussia, Feb. 19, 1726; 

April 15 and 19, June 3 and 10, 1727; from Sauveterre, 
Jan. 8, 1730; from La Chetardie, June 12, 1734. 

46. Dispatch from La Chetardie, F. A., Prussia, June 12, 1734. 

47. Declarations of this kind are very frequent in the conver- 

sations of Frederick William. See the correspondence 
of Seckendorff with the Court of Vienna, Forster, vol. 
II., second part. 

48. Conversation of the Prussian Ministers with Rottenburg, 

F. A., Prussia, March 8, 1726. 

49. Rottenburg, F. A., Prussia, Feb. 18, 1727; La Chetardie, 

Aug. 29, Sept. 3, Oct. 15, 1733; Jan. 29. 1735. 

50. Conversation of Frederick William with Rottenburg, F. 

A., Prussia, Oct. 20, 1725. 

51. Idem, ibidem. 

52. Rottenburg, F. A., Prussia, March 11, 1727; La Chetardie, 

Feb. 3, 1733. 

53. Rottenburg, F. A.. Prussia, Jan. 15, and April 15, 1727; La 

Chetardie, Dec. 21, 1733; Sept. 14, 1735. 

54. Sauveterre, F. A., Prussia, Dec. 27, 1729. 

55. Rottenburg, F. A., Prussia, Feb. 19, and June 21, 1726; 

Sauveterre, Aug. 28, 1731. 

56. Sauveterre, F. A., Prussia, April 7, 23 and 29, 1726; Aug. 

28, 1731; La Chetardie, Aug. 23, 1732; March 31, 1733. 

57. Conversation reported by the King to La Chetardie. F. 

A., Prussia, Dec. 21, 1733. 



NOTES. 431 

58. Rottenburg, F. A., Prussia. June 28, 1726; Sauveterre, 

Aug. 26, 1727. 

59. Rottenburg, F. A., Prussia. March 26, 1726; Sauveterre, 

May 27, 1730; La Chetardie, April 27, 1731, etc., etc. 

60. F. A., Prussia, Supplement, vol. LXXVI., p. 101. 

61. La Chetardie, F. A., Prussia, Aug. 23, 1732. 

62. Rottenburg, F. A., Prussia, March 29, Sept. 27, Oct. 8, 

1726; May 30, 1727; Feb. 3, 1733. 

63. The original, often copied, of a portrait of Frederick 

William by Weidemann, is at the Palace of Berlin. 
The noble and solemn attitude given to the King is cer- 
tainly false. In the Museum of the Palace of Monbijou, 
in one of the cases in the Gallery of Busts, is the mort- 
uary mask in wax of Frederick William. This mask 
bears the imprint of illness; the features are drawn, the 
nose thin; the face enframed by a ring of fat, has the 
cheeks sunken in. Inconstancy and sharp gruffness are 
delineated in the lower part of the face. 

61. Sauveterre, F. A., Prussia, Jan. 26 and March 1, 1732; 
June 1, 1731. 

65. Sauveterre, F. A., Prussia, March 13, 1728. 

66. Upon the kind of life led by Frederick William there are 

numerous anecdotes, but they are, for the most part, 
imaginary: a personage as extraordinary as he, lent a 
ready charm to the fantasy of the collectors of ana. 
Legend has not dealt kindly with Frederick William. A 
critical history of the legends in regard to him has yet to 
be written. I have taken from Fassmann (work cited) 
and Forster, art. 1st. chapters iii., iv. and vi.. the proved 
facts and most probable anecdotes. 

67. The order of the expulsion of Wolf, and the letters to 

recall him, are in Forster, II., pp. 353 et seq. 

68. Forster, pp. 288 et seq. 

69. The documents quoted upon the theatre in the time of 

Frederick William I. are in Forster, vol. I., chap. vi. 

70. Sauveterre. F. A., Prussia, Nov. 12. 1729: La Chetardie, 

May 5, 1733. There was often question of the King's 
dinners in the correspondence of Seckendorff and Prince 
Eugene. 

71. Kramer, Xeue Beitrdge zur Geschichte A. H. Franckes, 

p. 170. 

72. Rottenburg, F. A., Prussia, Aug. 10, 1726. 

73. Rottenburg, F. A., Prussia. Dec. 28, 1726; March 25, 1727: 

Sauveterre, April 3, 1728: March 1, August 23. 1729: 
Jan. 13 and 20, 1731: Feb. 9. 1732. 



432 NOTES. 

74. Sauveterre, F. A., Prussia, August 18, 1730. 

75. Rottenburg, F. A., Prussia, April 22, 1726; June 21, 1727; 

Sauveterre, March 25, 1732. 

76. Forster, vol. II., pp. 339, 340, 342, 343. 

77. Kramer, Neue Beitrdge, pp. 178-9. 

78. Kramer, pp. 174 and 184. This journal of the sojourn of 

Francke at Wusterhausen, written by him, is an authen- 
tic document of great interest. For the projects of 
retreat, see Memoirs of the Margravine, p. 83. Several 
times there is question of these projects in the corre- 
spondence of the French Ministers. 

79. Report of Suhm, Minister of Saxony, in Von Weber, Aus 

vier Jalirhunderten {Neue Folge), vol. I., p. 104. 

80. Report of Seckendorff, Forster, II., 2d part, p. 43, and dis- 

patches from Rottenburg, F. A. Prussia, March 26, 
December 28, 1726 ; April 26, 1727. 

81. Koser, p. 25, and the corresponding note of the Appendix, 

225, where mention is also made of the first debts of 
Frederick. 

82. Report quoted above, p. 136 n. 1., from Seckendorff. 

83. Koser, p. 8. 

84. Kramer, Neue Beitrdge, pp. 102-3. 

85. Report of the tutors, Cramer, Zur Geschichte, p. 32. 

86. Rottenburg, F. A., Prussia, March 26, 1726. 

87. Kramer, Neue Beitrdge, pp. 166, 177, 182, 185. 

88.. See, Briefe Friedrich des Grossen und seiner erlauchten 
Bruder . . . an die Gehriider F. W. und F. L. F. von 
Borcke. These letters are written in French. 

89. The description that the Margravine gives of her mother 

(p. 15) is exact enough. See Koser, pp. 11-13. 

90. Francke remarks that when the Queen presides at table, 

in the absence of the King, she speaks "oftener in 
French." 

91. Forster, I., p. 350. 

92. Memoirs of the Margravine, p. 95 et seq. 

93. Order of the King, Forster, I., p. 225. 

94. Words of the Queen to Grumbkow, Forster. III., p. 111. 

The Queen spoke also of Monbijou " and that she was 
very much in debt." 

95. Forster, I., p. 348. 



NOTES. 433 

96. It is very legitimate to question the Margravine, at least 

in regard to herself. Upon a criticism of the Memoirs, 
see Ranke, Zur Kritik Preussischer Memoiren, vol. 
XXIV., of his SdmmtUche IVerke; Droysen, Geschichte 
der Preussischen Politik (IV., 4); Pierson, Konig Fried- 
rich Wilhelm I., von Preussen, in den Denkicurdigkeiten 
der Markgrdfin Wilhelniine von Baireuth. 

97. Memoirs of the Margravine, pp. 33 et seq. 

98. SeckendorfF, in a report to Prince Eugene, Forster, III., 

339, confesses his admiration for this behaviour. 

99. Memoirs of the Margravine, pp. 45 et seq. 

100. Memoirs of the Margravine, pp. 2 and 3. 

101. Memoirs of the Margravine, p. 28. 

102. Kramer, Neue Beitrage, p. 165. 

103. Upon the marriages, see the correspondence of Secken- 

dorfp with Prince Eugene, in Forster, vol II., 2d part 
{Urkundenbuch), and vol. III., from p. 75; extracts from 
reports of the Ministers of Prussia at London, in 
Raumer, Beitrage zur Neueren Geschichte III., pp. 493 
et seq. I referred principally to the unpublished corre- 
spondence of the French Ministers at Berlin. F. A., Prus- 
sia, years 1725 to 1732. See Koser, pp. 11. et seq ; Ranke, 
pp. 91 et seq. 

101. La Chetardie, who had never seen "so many excellencies 
in such a small place," draws the portraits of the Min- 
isters of Prussia; among them he counts Seckendorff, 
F. A., Prussia, Oct. 11, 1732. 

105. The whole correspondence of Seckendorff is filled with 

these unscrupulous negotiations. See Koser, p. 15. 

106. Upon Grumbkow, see the dispatch of La Chetardie, Oct. 

11, 1732, quoted above. 

107. Forster II., Urkundenbuch, j). 138. 

108. Dispatches from Rottenburg, F. A.. Prussia, April 1, 2, 

1725; October 8.1726; July 15,1727; from Sauveterre, 
Nov. 9, 10, and Dec. 27, 1727. The dispatch wherein Rot- 
tenburg relates his conversation with the King in the 
garden at Wusterhausen (Oct. 8, 1726) is very curious. 
The King confesses to Seckendorff himself the desire 
he had for the marriages: "It is true I have been 
a good Hanoverian on account of the marriage ..." 
Forster, III., 339. 

109. Rottenburg, F. A., Prussia, Oct 3, 1725 ; Feb. 2, 1726. 

110. Rottenburg, F. A.. Prussia, April 19, May 24, 1726 ; Sauve- 

terre, Oct. 8, 1727. 



434: NOTES. 

111. Rottenburg, F. A., Prussia, May 29, 1726; Sauveterre, Oct. 

8, 1727. 

112. Upon the family scenes, Rottenburg, F. A., Prussia, Oct. 

20, 30, 1725; Feb. 21, April 19, June 21, Aug. 12, 1726. 

113. Rottenburg, F. A., Prussia, June 21, and Oct. 19, 1726; 

Mar. 8. and June 21, 1727. 

114. Idem, July 16, 1726. 

115. Rottenburg, F. A., Prussia, May 25, 1726. 

116. Rottenburg, F. A., Prussia, Nov. 12 and 26, 1726. 

117. Idem, Dec. 3. 1726; June 1, and July 12, 1727. 

118. Rottenburg, F. A., Prussia, Nov. 12, and Dec. 5, 1726. 

119. Seep. 136. 

120. Seckendorff is posted about everything, as all of his cor- 

respondence proves. See, for example, a very interesting 
dispatch to Prince Eugene, of Jan. 22, 1727, Forster, 
III., 333 et seq. 

121. F. A., Prussia, Aug. 1, Dec. 26, 1726. 

122. Bratuscheck, op. cit., p. 34. 

123. B7Hefe Fr. des Or. an F. W. und F. L. F. von Borcke 

p. 10. 

124. Bratuscheck, op. cit., pp. 39 et seq. and the notes. 

125. Sauveterre, F. A., Prussia, Jan. 17, 1728. 

126. Sauveterre, F A., Prussia, Feb. 3, 1728; and Bratuscheck, 

pp. 34-5. 

127. Koser, in the Appendix, 225. 

128. Memoirs of the Margravine, p. 101. 

129. Memoirs of the Margravine. 

130. Brief e Fr. des. Gr., pp. 12 et seq. 

This, as well as all of Frederick's writing in this book, is 
in bad French. Voltaire said (I quote from Edward 
Everett), that "there was not a sentence which you 
would not know to be the language of a foreigner." 
And this referred, of course, to a still later period. 
Translator. 

131. Works of Frederick the Great, vol. XXVII., 3d part, pp. 9 

and 10. 

132. Report of Suhm, Droysen, IV., pp. 398-401. 

133. Later, we find Keyserlingk among Frederick's most in- 

timate friends. This young officer had a brilliant 
mind; after his studies at .the University of Konigsburg 
he had traveled. The King, in placing near the Prince, 
as he said, this "alert" young man, certainly wanted to 
give his son pleasure. 



NOTES. 435 

134. Koser, pp. 24-5. 

135. For documents relative to the marriage, see p. 159, note 1. 

136. Koser, pp. 31-32. 

137. Sauveterre, F. A., Prussia, Feb. 7, 1729 ; a long dispatch 

wherein is a complete resume of the resumption of the 
marriage negotiations. 

138. At the same time of the dispatches from Sauveterre fol- 

low those of the Ministers of England, Raumer, Neue 
Beitrdge, loc. cit. The Queen is the principal source of 
information. She tells everything, even the most pri- 
vate scenes. 

139. Sauveterre, F. A., Prussia, Dec. 17 and 20, 1729 ; Jan. 14, 

Mar. 4 and 19. Apr. 8, 1730. The menace, " to turn all 
Europe upside down," is in a letter addressed to "a 
person in the city, of which Sauveterre gives a copy. 

140. Sauveterre, F. A., Prussia Aug. 13 and 30, 1729. Jan. 3 

and 15, Feb. 4 and 28, Aug. 13, 1730. Memoirs of the 
Margravine, years 1729 and 1730, notably pp. 140, 141, 150. 

141. Sauveterre, F. A., Prussia, Feb. 7, 1729. 

142. Memoirs of the Margravine, p. 123. . 

143. F. A., Prussia, 1730. 

144. Memoirs of the Margravine, pp. 110, 133, 134. 

145. Koser, pp. 25, 26. 

146. Memoirs of the Margravine, pp. 129, 130. 

147. Memoirs of the Margravine, p. 132. All these scenes are 

most likely to have occurred. See also pp. 151 and 152. 

148. Sauveterre, F. A.. Prussia, June 25, Dec. 6, 1729 ; Feb. 15, 

1730. Koser, pp. 29 and 30. 

149. F. A., Prussia, July 8 and 15, 1728. 

150. Memoirs of the Margravine, pp. 156, 157. 

151. Koser, in the Appendix, pp. 226, 227. 

152. Memoirs of the Margravine, pp. 138, 139. 

153. Memoirs of the Margravine, and Sauveterre, F. A., Prus- 

sia, Jan, 25, and Feb. 7, 1730. 

154. This strange scene was related by Hotham to Sauveterre 

(F. A., Prussia, April 8,) who was kept informed by 
Hotham, Du Bourgay and Cnyphausen of all that hap- 
pened during Hotham's stay. See the English dis- 
patches in Raumer, Neue Beitrdge, loc. cit., and Carlyle, 
book VII. 

155. Sauveterre, F. A., Prussia, April 8, 1730. 



436 NOTES. 

156. Dispatches of Grumbkow and Reichenbach, in Carlyle, 

book VII., 2. 

157. Memoirs of the Margravine, pp. 165, 166. 

158. Sauveterre, F. A., Prussia, April 8, 1730. 

159. Sauveterre, F. A., Prussia, iVpril 22. 

160. Dispatch from Hotham, April 5. Raumer, loc. cit. 

161. Droysen, op. cit, IV., III., p. 89. 

162. Hotham, April 25, 1730, Raumer, loc. cit. 

163. Correspondence of the month of April, 1730, Carlyle, loc. 

cit. 

161. Correspondence of the month of May, ibid., and Sauve- 
terre, F. A., Prussia, May 26, 1730. 

165. Letter communicated by Hotham to his Court, Carlyle, 

loc. cit. 

166. Upon these fetes, see Carlyle, VII., 3. 

167. Koser, pp. 37, 38. 

168. Sauveterre, F. A., Prussia, July 11, 1730. 

169. See the documents of the affair, in Carlyle, VII., 4. 

170. Sauveterre, F. A., Prussia, July 15, 1730. 

171. All the facts of this Chapter are studied with a remarkable 

exactitude and perfect precision, by Koser in Chapter II 
of the book cited. A complete bibliography of the docu- 
ments is given by him in the Appendix, pp. 236-242. 
These documents are in part unedited: the Archives of 
the Royal House contain seven vols, in-fol. of the Acts 
of the trial of Frederick and his accomplices, which 
Koser has studied. Among the published documents, 
the most important are the Informatio ex actis, a short 
resume of the acts, given by Preuss, Friedriclvs des 
Grossen Jugend pp. 87-93, and above all the Vollstdndige 
ProtokoUe des Kopenicker Kriegsgericlits fiber Kron- 
pi'inz Finedrich, Lieutenant von Katte von Kait u. s. iv., 
published by Danneil. The recitals of this trial estab- 
lish with certitude the sequel of facts. I refer once for 
all to Koser's chapter, in the Infoivnatio and ProtokoUe. 
I will indicate, in their respective places, the other docu- 
ments used. 

172. Dispatches from Hotham and Guy Dickens, June 16 and 

18, 1730. Raumer, pp. 516, 517. 

173. Sauveterre, F. A., Prussia, July 18, 1730. 

174. See statement dictated by the King to Mylius, in the 

Appendix to the book by Koser (pp. 261, 264). 



NOTES. 437 

175. Report of Seckendorff to the Emperor, August 14, 1730, 

Forster, III, pp. 1 et seq. This report must be consulted 
for the whole history of the attempt at escape. 

176. Guy Dickens, August 19,Raumer, pp. 518, 519: Sauveterre, 

F. A.. Prussia, August 21, 1830. 

177. August 19, 1730, Works of Frederick the Great, XXVII, 

3rd part, p. 10. 

178. Koser, p. 49. 

179. Guy Dickens, August 19, in Raumer, pp. 518, 519; Sauve- 

terre, F. A., Prussia, August 10, 1730. 

180. There is a legendary story about the arrest of Katte. 

Those who were ordered to arrest him, gave him notice 
and retarded the execution of the Royal Order, so as to 
give him time to leave. Katte remained for various 
reasons, that Theodor Fontane, to quote him only, gives 
in the Wanderungen diirch die Mark Brandenburg, 
vol. II (4th edit), pp. 307, 308. Koser dispels this legend 
(Appendix, p. 232), but I cannot explain to myself that 
Katte could have been able to destroy papers at the time 
of his arrest, hei der Arrestirung, as the Kopenick trial 
stated. 

181. The Margravine relates (pp. 192 et seq.) that a casket, 

filled with letters written by the Queen, Crown Prince 
and herself, was mysteriously brought, before Katte's 
arrest, to the house of Countess Fink, who remitted 
it to the Queen; and that these letters w^ere destroyed 
by the Queen and herself, and replaced by others. 
Although the details are uncertain the fact is authentic; 
it came to the knowledge of Seckendorff. 

182. The scene was undoubtedly a most violent one. Guy 

Dickens, Sept. 3, 5, 1730; Raumer, p. 525, and Sauveterre, 
F. A., Prussia,Sept. 7, 1730. 

183. Preuss, Urkundenbuch zii der Lebensgeschichte Friedrichs 

des Grossen, II, pp. 156-7. 

184. Sauveterre, F. A., Prussia, Sept. 11, 1730. See Koser, Ap- 

pendix, p. 233. 

185. Sept. 7 and 8, 1730, Preuss. Urkundenbuch, loc. cit. pp. 

150, 151. 

186. Sept. 19, 1730, Urkundenbuch, vol. II, p. 153. 

187. Sept. 20, 22; Oct. 5, 1730. Preuss, Urkundenbuch, vol. 

II, pp. 154 and 159. 

188. Sept. 6, 1730, Preuss, Urkundenbuch, vol. II, p. 150. 

189. Order to the Resident at Hamburg, Sept. 27, 1730, ibid., p. 

156. Sauveterre, F. A., Prussia, Sept. 11, 17, 1730.— 
Bratuschek, pp. 53, 54. 



438 NOTES. 

190. Guy Dickens, Sept. 7, Raumer, pp. 527-30. 

191. Dispatch of the Minister of Sweden at Berlin, communi- 

cated from Stockholm to Versailles, F. A., Prussia, Oct. 
25, 1730. — See also Guy Dickens, Sept. 30, Raumer, p. 
541. 

192. Guy Dickens, Oct. 3, 17, 21: Raumer, pp. 542-4; Sauveterre, 

F. A., Prussia, Oct. 25, 1730. 

193. Sauveterre, F. A., Prussia, Sept. 7, 1730. 

194. Communicated by Sauveterre, F. A., Prussia, Sept. 26, 1730. 

195. Guy Dickens, August 19, Raumer, p. 521. 

196. Guy Dickens, Sept. 25, 1730, Raumer, p. 541. 

197. The reports of Guy Dickens and Sauveterre, in Sept. and 

Oct. 1730, are full of details upon the attitude of Grumb- 
kow and Seckendorff. 

198. Guy Dickens, Sept. 16, 1730, Raumer, loc. cit, pp. 522-4, 

rei>orts a curious conversation of Seckendorff upon King 
Frederick William's state of mind. 

199. Letter of the King of Sweden, August 25, 1730, in Raumer, 

pp. 536, 537. Letters of Degenfeld, Sept. 19, 29; Preuss, 
Urkundenhuch, vol. II., pp. 156-7 and 160. 

200. Sauveterre, F. A., Prussia, Sept. 27, Oct. 3, 1730. 

201. Preuss, Urkundenhuch, vol. 11, p. 150. 

202. The Court of France never encouraged Frederick's flight. 

Sauveterre writes, it is true (F. A., Prussia, July 18, 1730), 
that at the time of the departure upon the journey to 
Anspach, a "friend" announced to him the intention of 
the Crown Prince to fly and resort to France. He 
answered that "we (France) would be pleased to see and 
take care of him and that he would be well received." 
He referred to a dispatch from his Court: "You have 
remarked the same thing to me, in one of your letters." 
But he made a mistake. The dispatch of which he 
speaks, F. A., Prussia, Feb. 26, 1730, was written in re- 
sponse to the communication made by Sauveterre, ibid., 
Feb. 15, of a projected trip of the Crown Prince, made 
with the consent of the king. It states therein: "They" 
(France) "would have liked to see him." It would have 
been a very happy thing, had he visited this country 
earlier. We report the response made to Rottenburg, 
when he spoke of the projected flight of Frederick. See 
also F. A., Prussia, Sept. 7, 1730, the dispatch from 
Versailles: "Whatever may be the affair in connection 
with the Prince of Prussia, we have assuredly taken no 
part." 



NOTES. 439 

203. Sauveterre, F. A., Prussia, Sept. 23, Oct. 3, 9, 1730; Guy 

Dickens, Sept. 30, in Raumer, pp. 511-13; the King to 
Degenfeld, Oct. 11, in Preuss, Urkundenbuch, vol. IL, 
page 160; Koser, pp. 59 and 60. 

204. Protokolle des Kopenicker Gerichts p. 31. 

205. Words of the King, spoken at table, ilbei^ offentUcher 

Tafel, reported by Seckendorff, Nov. 11, 1730. Forster, 
III, p. 15. 

206. Protokolle p. 35. 

207. Protokolle pp. 35, 36. 

208. Fontane, Wanderungen, II., pp. 316-17. 

209. Nov. 3, 1730. Forster III, p. 14. 

210. Koser, in the Appendix, pp. 236-37. 

211. There exists a report upon the last days and execution of 

Katte, addressed by Major Schack to Lieutenant-general 
Katte, the greater part of which is in Fontane, loc. cit., 
pp. 317 et seq. I analyse this report here. 

212. Fontane, loc. cit., pp. 318, 320. 

213. This sort of testament destined for the prince is inserted 

in a report of Pastor Miiller to the King, Beitrag zur 
Lehensgesclii elite Friedriclis des Grossen, icelcher einen 
merkwilrdigen Briefivechsel uber den ehemaligen Auf- 
enthalt des gedachten Konigs zu Custrin enthdlt. 

214. Sauveterre, F. A., Prussia, Sept. 27, and Oct. 21, 1730. 

215. Works of Frederick the Great, XXVII, 1, p. 3. 

216. The contemporaneous documents do not report in the 

same way the words of Katte to the Prince. Guy Dick- 
ens (Raumer, p. 546), and Sauveterre, who, during those 
days, was evidently inspired by his colleague of England, 
gives this dialogue: "My dear Katte, I earnestly beg 
your pardon for having brought you to this misfortune.*' 
"There is no reason why Your Highness should do so.— 
Monseigneur il n'y a pas de quoi.'" See in Koser, Ap- 
pendix, pp. 237-41, the bibliography of the execution of 
Katte. — Katte and Frederick spoke in French. 

217. The whole narration of the communications of the Prince 

with Mtiller are founded upon the curious documents 
contained in the brochure already cited (p. 297, No. 1). 
This brochure contains, besides the letter of the King 
which is about to be quoted here, five letters of Mtiller 
to the King (Nov. 6, 7, 8, 10, 14,) and three letters of the 
King to Miiller (Nov. 8, 12, 17). 



440 . NOTES. 

218. The father of Katte, in a heart-breaking letter to one of 

his relatives, gives, among his reasons for consolation, 
the following: "Is it not consoling that the execution 
had to take place at Ctistrin, for the world to under- 
stand, why my son had to be sacrificed, warum er ein 
Sacrifice;^' Fontane, loc. cit., p. 238. 

219. Reports of Seckendorff, Oct. 9, 28, 31, in Forster III, pp. 9, 

10 and 12. Letter of the King to the Emperor in 
Preuss, Urkundenbuch, vol. II, p. 169, to his ministers at 
Vienna and St. Petersburg, in the Appendix of Koser, 
pp. 241-2. 

220. The "project" for the pardon of the Prince by Seckendorff 

is in Preuss, Urkundenbuch, loc. cit., pp. 164-6. 

221. Letter of the King of Nov. 21, 1730, analysed in Koser, pp. 

71. 72. 

222. Wo er ein lionet home ivird daran ich sehr zweifle ist es 

vor ihn ein Glilck. Letter of Nov. 16, 1730, Zeitschrift 
fur preussische Geschichte und Landeskunde IX., p. 
594. 

223. Hille to Grumbkow, Dec. 19, 1730, Koser, p. 242. The cor- 

respondence of Hille, Wolden and Grumbkow is in 
French. Frederick always wrote in French, except to 
his father. 

224. Koser, p. 74. 

225. The King to Wolden, Nov. 29, Koser, pp. 76-77. The words 

in italics in the King's letter are in French. 

226. For this correspondence, see Koser, pp. 77-78. 

227. See, for this correspondence, Koser, pp. 79-82, and Forster, 

III, pp. 40 et seq., ten reports of Hille and Wolden to 
Grumbkow. 

228. Memorandum of Hille, Dec. 1730, Koser, pp. 93-4 and Ap- 

pendix, p. 247. 

229. Wolden to Grumbkow, April 28, 1731, Forster III, 41-2. 

230. The memorandum of the Prince is of January, 1731; the 

letter of the King, February 2, Koser, p. 79. 

231. For this correspondence, Koser, pp. 83-4. The last letter 

of the King is dated August 5. 

232. This whole scene is related in a protocol written the next 

day, by Grumbkow for Seckendorff, Forster III., p. 50. 
Grumbkow was present at the interview. 

233. Instruction for Wolden, Aug. 21, 1731, Forster I., pp. 386, 

et .seq. 

234. Id., ibid. 



NOTES. 441 

235. mile to Grumbkow, Aug. 20, 21, 1731, Forster, III., pp. 

58-9. 

236. Grumbkow's Instruction for the Crown Prince of Prussia, 

Forster, III., pp. 54 et seq. This document is in French. 

237. The King in an order, Nov. 1730, had given permission for 

the Berlin and Hamburg journals, and, in a general way, 
the I nfeUigenzbldtter, Koser, Appendix, p. 244. 

238. Seckendorff to Prince Eugene, June 19, 1731, Forster, III., 

p. 75. 

339. Koser, Appendix, pp. 265, 266. 

240. Fontane. W cinder lui gen, Vol. II., pp. 347 et seq. 

241. Correspondence of Frederick with Madame von Wreech, 

Works of Frederick the Great, Vol. XVI., pp. 9 et seq.; 
Koser, Appendix, pp. 245-6; Fontane, pp. 369 et seq. 

242. The Prince to the King, Aug. 18, 21, 1731. Works of Fr. 

the Great, Vol. XXVII., III., pp. 15-18. 

243. Sept. 1, 1731, ibid., pp. 21-2. 

244. Sept. 8, 1731, ibid., p. 23. 

245. Sept. 22, 1731, ibid., pp. 26, 27. 

246. Sept. 29, Oct. 6, 1731, ibid., pp. 28-30. 

247. This letter of Aug. 28, 1731, is probably the first which was 

written after the visit of the King to Ciistrin; it follows 
up the sermon of Aug. 15; Works of Frederick the 
Great loc. cit., pp. 18, 20. 

248. This part of the Memoir's of the Margravine (year 1730) 

is very much contested by Droysen {Joe. cit.) and 'Pier- 
son. Konig Friedrich Wilhelni in den Denkwurdigkeiten 
der Markgrdfin Wilhehnina von Baireuth. Of course 
there are to be found in it many exaggerations and a few 
inventions, but there still remains considerable truth. 
I have taken from it the facts which appear probable to 
me and have stated the numerous and important places, 
where the testimony of Wilhehnina has been confirmed 
by others. For the marriage negotiations, see the dis- 
patches of Sauveterre, F. A., Prussia, Dec. 2, 12, 30. 1730; 
Jan. 13, 16, March 17, Mav 15, 19, June 2, 4, 17, 23, July 
31, Oct. 13, Nov. 10 and 20,^1731. 

249. Guy Dickens relates, in a dispatch May 19, 1731, - that the 

King threatened to shut Sonsfeld up in a Magdalen 
Asylum, if she did not make Wilhelmina obey him," 
Raumer, p. 559. 

250. Sauveterre, F. A., Prussia, May 19, 1731, speaks of this 

scene, after which, he says, that the Princess remained 
three days without food or drink. 



442 NOTES. 

251. Guy Dickens, June 2, 3, 1731, Raumer, pp. 559-61. Guy 

Dickens relates, in the same dispatch, the scene at the 
review. For the scene at dinner, he invokes the testi- 
mony of those present. 

252. Guy Dickens, ibid. 

253. Guy Dickens, ibid. 

254. See pp. 121-2 of this volume. 

255. I give this detail because I believe it to be true, strange as 

it may be. The Queen was capable of such aberrations. 
(See p. 266, her proceedings after the arrest of her son). 
Wilhelmina manifestly invents in this part of her 3Ie- 
inoirs, the story of the couriers arriving from England 
and intercepted or retarded by Grumbkow. But the 
dispatches of Sauveterre, F. A., Prussia, May 19, June 21, 
Oct. 13, 1731, prove that the Queen continued to nego- 
tiate at London. In the dispatch of Oct. 13, Sauveterre. 
writes that Guy Dickens thinks the negotiation relative 
to the marriage could easily be renewed. After the 
marriage, he speaks (Dec. 18, 1731) of the steps taken, 
three weeks before the nuptials, to gain the Prince of 
Wales. "As a final result, however, the negotiations 
were broken because the King of England persisted in 
the double marriage." The Queen continued to intrigue 
and hope to the very last moment. 

256. See, in the Memoirs of the Margravine, the whole year of 

1731. In the preceding pages, and those which follow, I 
have sometimes employed the expressions used in the 
Memoirs. 

257. See, for this psychology of the Margravine given by her- 

self, pp. 262, 266, 267, 268, 269, 281, 282. 

258. Letters from Hille to Grumbkow, May 19, 26, June 5, 1731; 

in Forster, III., pp. 44-5, 48-9. 

259. Dispatches of Guy Dickens, Aug. and Nov., 1731, in Rau- 

mer, pp. 561-3. 

260. Dec. 8, 1731, Works of Frederick the Great, Vol. XXVII, 

III., pp. 3a-4. 

261. Dec. 18 and 22, 1731; Jan. 22 and 29, 1732. Ibid., pp. 35, 

39, 49, 50, 51-2. See, besides, all his correspondence. 

262. See note 261. 

263. Dec. 25, 1731, and Jan. 17, 1732, ibid., pp. 41, 45. 

264. Hille to Grumbkow, Apr. 28 and June 5, 1731, Forster, pp. 

40-1, 49. 

265. Koser, Appendix, pp. 266-67. 



NOTES. 443 

266. Hille to Grumbkow, Apr. 28, 1731, Forster, pp. 40-1. See, 

besides Hille's letters, three reports of Schulenburg, 
Forster, III, pp. 65 et seq. 

267. Jan. 19, 1732, Works of Frederick the Great XXVII, III, 

pp. 47-8. 

268. Hille to Grumbkow, Sept. 30, 1731, Forster, III, p. 63. 

See, in reports of Schulenburg cited above, notably pp. 
55, 65, 69 and 72. 

269. Works of Frederick the Great, vol. XVI, pp. 15-17. 

270. Koser, p. 95. 

271. Works of Frederick the Great, vol. XXVII, III, pp. 36-39. 

Plan ivegen des Commercii nach Schlesien. 

272. Letter of the Crown Prince to Natzmer, Feb., 1731. Works 

of Frederick the Great, vol. XVI, pp. 3-6. 

273. Prince Eugene to Seckendorff, Forster, III., p. 99. 

274. Prince Eugene to Seckendorff, Dec. 12, 1730; ibid , p. 16. 

275. Hille to Grumbkow, Dec. 18, 1730, Koser, p. 98. 

276. Frederick's project in the letter of Hille to Grumbkow, 

April 11, 1731; letter of Grumbkow to Hille, April 14, 
1731; letter of Seckendorff to Prince Eugene, April 17, 
and response of Prince Eugene, May 12, 1731; Forster, 
III., pp. 21-24, 26-28. 

277. Letters of the King to Wolden, May 25, 1731; from Hille 

to Grumbkow, May 26; from Wolden to Grumbkow, 
June 2, 1731; Forster, III., pp. 45-8. 

278. Seckendorff to Prince Eugene, June 19, 1731, after he had 

received from Grumbkow a report of the visit he had 
made to Ctlstrin, Forster, III., p. 75. 

279. Hille to Grumbkow, Sept. 30, 1731, Forster, III., p. 62, and 

narration of Schulenburg cited above. 

280. Two letters of the Prince to Grumbkow in the beginning 

of January, 1732, Koser, p. 99. 

281. Prince Eugene to Seckendorff, Jan. 29, 1732, Forster, III., 

pp. 76-7. 

282. Seep. 373. 

283. Works of Frederick the Great, vol. XXVII., III., pp. 53-4. 

284. The letters written by Frederick to the King and Queen 

(after the letter of the King of Feb. 4, 1732) are lost. We 
have the Queen's answer to her son. She congratulates 
him with doubtful sincerity, upon his submission to his 
father, which '* in this instance is glorious." Works of 
Frederick the Great, vol. XXVI., p. Go. Letters of the 
Prince to Grumbkow, Jan. 9, 1732, in Koser. p. 100, and 
of Feb. 11, 1732, Woi-ks of Frederick the Great, vol. XVI., 
pp. 36-39. 



444 NOTES. 

285. Seckendorff to Prince Eugene, Feb. 17,32 (Relation 

uher den Briefwechsel des Kronprinzen mit Grumb- 
kow), Forster, III, pp. 157-160. Grumbkow to the 
Crown Prince, Feb. 20, 1731. Works of Frederick the 
Great, vol. XVI, pp. 43-4. 

286. Letter quoted above from Grumbkow, Feb. 20, 1732. 

287. Feb. 19, 1732, Works of Frederick the Great, vol. XVI. pp. 

41-2. 

288. Feb. 22, 1732, Works of Frederick the Great, vol. XVI, 

pp. 43-8. 

289. Grumbkow to Seckendorff, Feb. 23, 1732, Koser, p. 108; 

Seckendorff to Prince Eugene, March 14, Forster, III, 
83; the Prince to the Margravine, March 6, 24, Works 
of Frederick the Great, pp. 4-5. 

290. Seckendorf to Prince Eugene, Feb. 23, 1732, Forster, III, 

78-83. 

291. Prince Eugene to Seckendorff, March 9, 15, 23, 26, April 

16, 30, Forster, III, 84, 86. 90, 98, 105. 

292. Seckendorff to Prince Eugene, March 29, April 1, 5, 8, 28, 

1732, Forster, III, pp. 91, 93, 94, 96, 105. 

293. Grumbkow to Seckendorff, May 17, Aug. 17, 1732, Forster, 

III, 108, 110 

294. Memoirs of the Margravine, pp. 375-6 

295. Grumbkow to Seckendorff, May 17, Aug. 20, Oct. 4 and 7, 

1732, Forster, III, 108, 111, 115, 116; Seckendorff to 
Prince Eugene, Apr. 5, 8, 28, 1732, Forster, III, 94, 96, 105. 

296. Seckendorff to the Prince, April 6, 1732, and response 

(not dated) of the Prince, Works of Frederick the Great, 
vol. XVI, pp. 27-8; Seckendorff to Prince Eugene, April 
28 and Sept. 18, 1732, Forster, III, 105, 113. 

297. The Prince to Grumbkow, Sept. 4 and 29, 1732, Works of 

Frederick the Great, vol. XVI., pp. 56-8, 64. 

298. Seckendorff to Prince Eugene, Sept. 18, 1732, Forster, III., 

112. 

299. • Koser, pp. 168 et seq. 

300. Seckendorff to Prince Eugene, April 8, 1732; Prince 

Eugene to Seckendorff, April 16, 30, 1732; Forster, III., 
pp. 96, 98, 105. 

301. Seckendorff to Prince Eugene, Nov. 4, 1732 ; Grumbkow 

to Seckendorff, Nov. 4, and report of Grumbkow, Nov. 
8-24, Forster, III., pp. 116, 128. 

302. Seckendorff to Prince Eugene, Nov. 26, 1732, Forster, III., 

p. 118. 



NOTES. 445 

303. Letter of the Prince of Bevern to the King, Nov. 22, 1732, 

in French, quoted in a letter from Seckendorflf to 
Prince Eugene, of Nov. 30, 1732, and the King's answer 
to the Prince of Bevern, in French, attached to a letter 
from Seckendorff to Prince Eugene, Dec. 17, 1732, Forster, 
III., pp. 120, 140-1. 

304. An account of the tabagie of the 6th of Dec. 1732, by 

Grumbkow ; Seckendorff to Prince Eugene, Dec. 6, 9, 
13, 16, 20, 22, 27, 1732, and Prince Eugene to Seckendorff, 
Dec. 6 and 17, 1732, Forster, pp. 135, 137, 138, 139, 141, 
142, 144, 145. 

305. The Prince, who found this expression very good, repeated 

it to Grumbkow, Dec. 14, 1732. {Works of Frederick 
the Great, vol. XVI., p. 74.) 

306. The Prince to Seckendorff, Dec. 26, 1732, Works of Fred- 

erick the Great, vol. XVI, pp. 30-1. — See the letter of the 
Crown Prince to Grumbkow, of Oct. 19, 1732. "If I 
knew how to make gold, I would communicate my 

science, first of all, to my poor sister of Baireuth I 

wish with all my heart that her father-in-law would step 
off. He would be easily enough consoled, I think, if he 
had the assurance that they distilled whisky in heaven." 
Ibid., pp. 67-8. 

307. Seckendorff to Prince Eugene, Feb. 28, and April 11, 1733, 

Forster, III., 146, 148 ; Seckendorff to the Crown Prince, 
April 1733, Works of Frederick the Great, vol. XVI., p. 
33. 

308. The Prince to Grumbkow, Jan. 25 and 27, 1733, Works of 

Frederick the Great, vol. XVI, pp. 77, 79. 

309. Report of Seckendorff to Prince Eugene, June 13, 1733, 

Forster pp. 148-155. 

310. The Prince to the Margravine, June 12, 1733, "at twelve 

o'clock," Works of Frederick the Great, vol. XXVII, 
(1st part), p. 9. 

311. Memoirs of the Margravine, p. 401. 

312. Letter in French to Grumbkow, Forster, III, pp. 175-6. 

313. Secret accounts of Seckendorff; letter of the same to 

Prince Eugene, Oct. 4, 1733; letter of Prince Eugene 
upon Reichenbach, July 4, 1731, Forster, III, pp. 531-34. 



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